Well Mad Jock,
I gotta agree with you! I don't have the nerve to advocate here, that a PPRuNer should not use the whole raft of checklists, and other alphabet soup, but an argument can be made!
At some point, you get comfortable with an aircraft type, then a whole class, so that the checklist is kind of engrained, and has been said, if you forget some little thing (like zeroing the fuel computer) your flight will still be a success anyway.
What's more important to me is that however you are doing it, the important things are not being missed. When I fly the MD500 helicopter, I use the checklist absolutely, because I'm just not that current on it. When I fly a single Cessna, other than the Caravan, the checklist just flows from memory. Oh, my 150 does not have a landing gear selector like the 182RG, that's ok. I purposefully spend more time thinking about what I'm doing in the plane, and what I need to be safe doing it, rather than trying to remember jumbled alphabets. If I doubt, I'll use the checklist. Religiously remebering to put the gear down for landing is not the best way to do it, if you're about to land an amphibian on the water. The amphib I fly requires distinct movements of three separate controls to raise or lower the gear. That's hard to forget!
If I'm landing anything on water, are the wheels up? If I'm landing in a confined area, what's the wind, surrounds, slope and surface? I recall after a test flight, landing the wheel ski equipped Citbria back on pavement. It went just fine, but I recalled just afterward that I had not done a prelanding check for "skis up, landing for on a hard surface". They were, but I had not checked. It would have been bad if I'd got that wrong! The Citabria checklist does not have that item, and there was no flight manual supplement, or supplemental checklist for that installation. There is now!
The only mnenonic I have ever actually remembered is "HASEL", and it seems to work well for airwork in any aircraft type. It is a "what are you about to do?" check, not a "what knob does this plane have in it?" exercise. !!!I've had an engine failure - I'm going to put on the fuel pump - but only after I have satisifed myself there is not a fire up/over there! Aircraft type irrelevent, unless it has no aux fuel pump.
So, if you need to ask, you need to use the whole, real checklist for the plane. If you need to use a checklist when the engine suddenly stops, you need more training and practice. If you are comfortable with a means other than the checklist, and don't need to ask, I'm not going to tell you how to fly - you take responsibilty!