Some interesting discussion points have been raised for which I thank you all
SOP's are obviously necessary in our increasing complicated environment,but where should the line be drawn? Covering the arse of management,who are so fearful of crew errors causing an accident that ever more complicated SOP's are drawn up turning us all into robots. The ever present danger of this policy is to reduce a crews situational awareness to such an extent that an incident becomes more not less likely.Deviating from manufacturers SOP's should be only done with great care and caution and constantly be reviewed as to the effecacy of such changes. If the principle of management is to enable blame to be distributed in the event of an incident that that is clearly the wrong avenue to go down. SOP's should be used for one reason only.
TO PREVENT AN INCIDENT HAPPENING IN THE FIRST PLACE. Where they are used as an arse covering procedure by airlines then they are very likely to be barstadised to such an extent as to potentially cause the very incident that they are designed to avoid.
Keep the posts going fellow professionals, your differing opinions are very useful
SA