While I agree that the prime concern should always be gliding and picking a suitable landing area you should be able to carry out some quick trouble checks without much distraction. I haven't flown a piston for some time now, but I still have FMOST drilled in my head for if things went quiet. Starting with "F" Fuel - Pumps ON, contents checked, change tanks. While its nice to have individual procedures specific to the type it's way easier to remember a generic acronym that sticks in your head for almost every piston type you could fly. And I remember doing this drill with students at low level so they could practice whether they had time to complete the checklist or not and just focus on landing.
Having a lot of time on PA28s I could say the fuel system is very simple with just the one vice that you have to change tanks regularly. Ergonomics wise, its not that difficult, 3 place selector OFF/LEFT/RIGHT. I've seen much worse in various other aircraft. Fuel gauges are not hidden by any means and in a reasonable location. However as with any older aircraft there is no quantity warning system, and the pilot has to keep a fuel log to ensure burn is matching plan and gauge indication. CLEAR-OFF checks at 30 minute intervals usually were enough to keep track of fuel logs, with all the fancy iPad things these days I'm sure you could get an alarm to go off every 30 minutes to do your navigation checks.
Last edited by 43Inches; 6th Jul 2023 at 02:17.