When training og a warrior, I was taught BMCFHCE which stood for
Brakes (off)
Mixture (rich)
Carb heat (on)
Fuel (pump on, check tank quantity)
Hatch and Harness (secure and done up)
Carb heat (off)
Engine (t's and p's ok?)
As a middle aged petrol head, the mnymonic was memorable as a British Motor Company Fixed Head Coupe with an Engine.
Then, when I converted to a complex, it became UBMCFHCE, which stood for
Undercarriage (down - are there three greens?)
Brakes (off)
Mixture (rich)
Carb heat (on - but not there because it's injected)
Fuel (pump on, check tank quantity)
Hatch and Harness (secure and done up)
Carb heat (off - because it's still not there)
Engine (t's and p's ok?)
The thinking was not to totally change a check-list that the pilot had memorised, but simply add another block.
You'll notice that 'Pitch' is missing, the logic being that it made no sense to suddenly pull full-fine pitch on the beginning of the downwind leg as firstly, you immediately acquired what amounted to an air-brake and, secondly, you risked over-speeding the engine - think how many times you've heard a beech/mooney/rockwell/arrow enter the circuit, lower it's gear, and then for the engine to suddenly go 'Weeeeeeee" as the pitch gets shoved full fine. Again, the thinking was that it made more sense to leave this until you pulled the power back on base-leg and the prop reverted to full-fine pitch anyway, because the low power put it out of the range of the governor anyway.
Then, on finals, you had the final "REDS, BLUES, GREENS" where you checked the levers and lights of those colours.
Red (mixture, full rich)
Blue (pitch full fine)
Green (three green lights)
In the end, though, it doesn't much matter which list you learn, just so long as you stick to it and remember why you are doing it. A significant number of gear-up accidents seem to happen because the pilot does his "reds, blues, greens" check, without actually looking to see whether there ARE three greens. It's not enough to simply say it.....
