Since 212man kindly thought I could contribute to the discussion, here goes: (despite spelling my name wrong - again!)
Having been dragged into the world of an SOP run operation - somewhat kicking and screaming (it requires effort to learn - something not everyone is always prepared to do), I really think this is the only way to go for rotary as well. I'm sure many of us remember the instrument check palaver we used in the old days where half the fuel was consumed prior to departing.
As long as proper scan flows are set up and the briefings are about things we 'may not know' rather than things we 'do know' then it makes life easier for the pilots concerned to ensure that they can predict with a degree of certainty what their 'other half' on the flight deck will do. If those predictions are not met then there is room for the crew to challenge each other.
We have three airborne check lists, to be honest the After TO check list has three items and is frequently chosen not to be applied by some airlines (including us until fairly recently). As 212man said, the purpose of the check list is to ensure that items have been done, and is not a read-and-do. Our check lists in the air focus on a number of items:
Altimeters: SOPs are good for this, but we are introducing what we call Barometric Vertical Navigation procedures, if we are on the wrong setting, it will at the very least cause a deal of fright. We are using the baro as vertical guidance for approaches which don't have ground based vertical guidance.
Aircraft Status: Does the aircraft have a failure which prevents the proposed approach being carried out or will the minima have to be increased (also how hard will it be to stop on the runway when you get there - not usually a rotary problem).
Briefings: Have they been done, not - now is the time to do them! Do we need to do a mini-brief to cater for a changing situation?
Cabin Crew & Pax: Do they know we are about to land, are they ready?
Electronic Checklist: On the 'bus we have an ECAM memo for TO and LDG, are there items which have been missed?
You notice that the check list makes no mention of niff-naff like undercarriage, landing lights, nav idents, etc since the SOP caters for those items and we have lots of warning if we leave the gear up.
A key part of the SOPs is a good brief as mentioned above. We use CTWO for departure and CTWO-F for approach.
Charts: Which Ones
Terrain: Is it a threat?
Weather: Is that a threat as well?
Operational: See example below.
Fuel: What are our options for holding or diverting.
The idea is to brief the threats (stuff we don't always know), for example; Addis Ababa:
"High terrain big split between IAS and TAS, Wet Runway, we will use Max reverse with Auto Brake Low. I'm expecting to have to visually transition from a 3.4 slope on the GPS approach to a 3.0 slope on the PAPIs and may exceed 1000 fpm ROD slightly to achieve this. Once we touch down, we will lose sight of the end of the runway because of the hump in the middle and I will aim to turn off at the end to keep the brakes from getting too warm. Air traffic are not brilliant, if there are any doubts we will double check before accepting a clearance. Can you think of any other threats?".
We have a total of 14 separate checks in three groups, as I said before, the three After TO checks are often not used, so that's really 11. It's the kind of number you should be aiming for IMHO, as well as having a robust well written SOP.