With all due respect, surely you don't need the crutch of a written checklist to help you fly an iddy biddy CESSNA. Certainly you should read the manufacturer's recommendations and learn them by heart. Checklists for these small aircraft are simply not necessary. 55,000 wartime pilots can't all be wrong. If they did not need written checklists to fly Tiger Moths, Spitfires and Lancasters, then it does seem rather superfluous for a Cessna 172 or similar trainer. Unfortunately, the use of written checklists for the easiest of trainers has become a cottage industry with big money to be made. Remember that as you pore over line upon line of what to check next, the VDO meter is ticking over and swallowing your hard earned pennies. And the instructor is gleefully rubbing his hands as he sees his student reading his lines and putting money in the instructors deep pockets. A pox on checklists and the people that insist they are good things for the soul. Big jets, yes. Lighties - no way.
[This message has been edited by Centaurus (edited 20 March 2001).]