Hi!
My last US airline (and the current checklist I am using) had an item for shoulder harness-ON for landing and takeoff. The US airline checklist was ripped off from NWA, so assume they had the same thing.
What is "Common Sense", and you are saying if it's common sense, it shouldn't be on the checklist?
Current Before Landing Check:
Altimeters
Ignition
Lights
Air Cond Auto Shutoff
Gear
Spoilers
Flight Director
Altitude Alert
Flaps/Slats
Annunciators
Landing Clearance
To me, with my level of experience, ALL the items are "Common Sense", so does that mean out Landing Check should be blank?
For new guys, I could see:
Ignition
Air Cond Auto Shutoff
Spoilers
So, even for new guys, if I were leaving out all "Common Sense" items, I would leave out items like Gear and Flaps, as they are "Common Sense" to all of us, even new guys.
If our checklist was up to me alone:
I would put the most essential items on the checklist, and leave out the rest. In the checklist quoted above, I would leave out:
-Altimeters (completed in Approach Check previously)
-Lights (completed in Approach Check previously)
-Flight Director (some guys don't want to use them, our FO one is broken anyway and has never worked, and some guys only use them part of the time...want to practice Raw Data)
-Annunciator Panel (if it is serious, we will get a Master Caution/Master Warning)
-Landing Clearance-(we will be talking and listening on the radio, and confirming this with tower/approach on the radio)
Bottom line, EVERY checklist I have seen has what I would call "Common Sense" items on them.
Everyone's ideas of "Common Sense" are, in fact, NOT Common: What may be Common Sense to me, you may never have even heard of or thought about.
Here is a great example: To me it is Common Sense that the universe (and our Sun) is powered by Electricty. But, to most physicists, scientists and laypeople that learn about our universe, they think our universe is held together by gravity, Black Holes, Dark Matter, and the sun is powered by Fusion. I think that is all totally and completely wrong, and doesn't make any kind of sense whatsoever.
But, you are right, in that if the Checklist is too long or cumbersome, then it lowers the chance of a safely completed flight.
There is a balance, and the BEST checklist, is one that offers the best chance of helping the pilots complete the flight safely.
Each organization is different, so I would say that each organization should develop their checklists so that they best reflect the needs of their organization.
On an interesting note, I was flying a DA-20. After about 3 years, the company decided to radically change the checklist, callouts, flows and procedures. I think it was a good idea.
What they did, was match the checklist/procedures, etc. to the DC-9 checklist/procedures, etc. Most guys were hired onto the DA-20, then transition to the DC-9, and we hired mostly relatively lower-experienced guys. So, after then finished DA-20 training and operations, when they moved to the DC-9, their learning curve was drastically reduced (and we had some -9 guys move to the Falcon...probably the only -121 airline with Capts who were over Age 65, so it helped them, too).
If another company did NOT have -9s, it would make more sense to optimize the Falcon checklist soley for Falcon operations.
Note: We are working on our checklists right now, to try and improve them....not so easy with a lot of different opinions of what is "Best" and different interpretations of "Common Sense".
cliff
LFW