1. In my role as a teacher I find it necessary to carefully explain to my customers the fact that the guys who write the checklists have to do so in advance of the aircraft entering service. They therefore have to guess at what malfunctions are likely to occur. (particularly avionics and electrical)
2. Nick is right, checklists achieve almost religious (ie. biblical) status, as if written by Gods. Certainly we in the UK/NL had to change the S76B FM vital actions in the event of a fire warning that did not go out because the NL part of the team at first refused to add a line that said 'Check for signs of fire' (before proceeding). When my colleague safely landed his (full) 'B' model on the offshore platform rather than obey the 'Land Immediately' call in the FM (and put pax and crew in the North Sea) it raised some eyebrows. It is pleasing to note that the 139 FM includes this requirement. One must consider that the effects of the KLM/PAN AM Azores debacle has left a traumatic legacy for Dutch pilots, a generation of whom have had it drummed into them that the most important thing is obeying the rules.
3. The most fantastic thing about sim training is that you can give the candidate his head when presented with any kind of malfunction scenario. In a world where reliability is the norm we have to work hard to equip the modern young pilot with 'airmanship' skills. The debriefs afterwards are often worth their weight in gold. I wish I could package them and sell them.
If you arrive at the right outcome and did not follow the FM then YOU WERE RIGHT. write to the manufacturer and tell him your experience and I am sure he will be pleased to receive it.
G
