A long time ago we enjoyed the presence of a very senior former officer as Chief Pilot. He was big on checklists and had inherited a fine set of binoculars from his predecessor. By gosh he used them for nefarious purposes, and I found myself in his office, binoculars in the middle of his desk facing me, and listening to him say “ I have noticed that you don’t use a checklist “. Well he was right. Had me there. Naturally his advocation for same had been talked about. Though I’d been there only six years at that point, I figured it was up to me, seeing as I knew no one else had been queried, and I responded: “ (addressing him by rank ) in this job, if you need a checklist to get the ship started, you are in the wrong job”. It was a few moments before the checklist speech started.
This earned me a place on the flight schedule with him soon after. Which led to chapter two of this story and too long to write at the moment.
The new chief came from the fixed wing side of the business and he had meritorious credentials there. He had a total of 200 hours in helicopters. It was unfortunate for all concerned.