How are modern aircraft checklists created/certified?

[Centaurus]

Following on from that; how do airline's go about adding or taking from a checklist?

In 1974 a small Central Pacific airline obtained two new Boeing 737-200 aircraft. For the first month of operation a Boeing instructor pilot accompanied the flight crews during initial line flights. He noticed that the operator had added several more items to the standard Boeing checklists published in the QRH. These additions were the personal opinions of the chief pilot and included for example in the Pre-Start scan the switching on and off of the anti-skid switch to ensure the anti-skid light caution light worked.

The Boeing instructor pilot made the point that many of the additional checklist items required by the chief pilot were superfluous. In addition he stated that in designing aircraft checklists there was a limit to the number of items to be checked beyond which a flight engineer or third person in the cockpit was required. For example the Boeing 727. For that reason Boeing had automated some systems such the pressurisation systems in the 737-200 in order to satisfy the rules for a two pilot cockpit. Not only that, but eye movements were also taken into consideration as checklists or scans were made.

In the case of this new operator of the Boeing 737-200, the additional non-essential checklist items required by the chief pilot nullified the two pilot concept of checklist design. The Boeing instructor pilot (who had written the original Boeing 737 Pilot Training Manual or PTM) then stated in a semi serious manner that the airline should ground its aircraft unless checkist item numbers were reduced in line with the two crew concept.

Checklist design by the aircraft manufacturer is only one part of the certification process. Flight operations management of airlines need to be cognizant of this and avoid the temptation of adding further items lest Certification requirements be breeched.