Is the AFM/FCOM the be-all and end-all of our procedures?
Yes, regardless of experience, it is the document which tells you how to operate the aircraft. Yes, you may deviate from it for the immediate purpose of ensuring the safety of flight, but this should be a very unusual occurrence, not a routine one, and should be reported.
Operators and pilots may always
add their own procedures, but never subtract the manufacturer's ones...
Having made that sweeping statement, I should add that many manufacturers write extraordinarily long checklists, which contain items which are either not necessarily relevant or may be better completed another way. A simple example concerns landing lights. When preparing checklists (as part of Ops Manual Part Bs) I have always dealt with this problem by making a statement in the Ops Manual along the lines of: '
The landing lights should be used for takeoff, initial climb, approach, landing, and at any time that their use benefits safety'. Regulators have always been happy with this way of getting the extraneous item 'LANDING LIGHTS... ON' out of a lengthy checklist, so I suppose I have contradicted myself there, but I hope it makes sense; perhaps you might say that the Part B/FCOM overrides the AFM in matters of detail. Bear in mind that an airline pilot will probably work a whole career without ever seeing the AFM for his aircraft, and simply abiding by his company's take on things, which of course has been approved (or in some cases not objected to, to be more precise) by the regulator.
So, to be clear:
If you have an official Ops Manual (AOC), follow that; any deficiencies from the AFM are the company's problem, not yours. If you don't have an Ops Manual, follow the AFM. If you have notes or procedures from elsewhere (eg FSF), you may use them in addition to the AFM, if you so wish, but you do so at your own risk (at least in the first instance) and you must not contradict the AFM by using them.
Part of the problem here comes (as I mention on another thread) from elementary training... Some flying schools produce their own procedures, often completely different from the manufacturer's, and almost always very poor... A landing checklist with SEVENTEEN ITEMS in a piston twin springs to mind!
Sleeve, I think we have a misunderstanding... You re-iterated the point I already made:
The correct answer is in the operations manual or AFM or equivalent, assuming it is stated there