I use a checklist for ground items, pre-flight, pre-start, run up etc. then memory for the rest - with a check list available.
I now fly a variety of small aircraft from a Microlight to a Cessna 182, and use the same memory check list for all - KISS. If the item is not relevant it doesn't matter - it will be tomorrow ! i.e. undercarriage, sometimes I say - down and welded, i.e on the 182, or Cherokee, but on the microlight I have to extend it and check it, so by mentioning it I don't have to change the downwind check for each and every type. KISS.
The microlight uses a Rotax, with no mixture, but it has a choke for starting which isn't used in the air in the manner of a mixture control, or carb.heat, but I still say them out loud to myself during the downwind check, and respond accordingly, and also check that the carb heat is stowed on finals - even tho' it isn't there, it will be tomorrow when I might fly the 182.
The 'questions' are identical, but the 'responses' remind me which type I'm flying - if I need reminding, and at my age ...... !
One time when I didn't bother to use the printed pre-flight checklist I'd made for a 'simple' microlight, I left the pitot cover on ! Sounds daft, but Murphy is always with us. If it can happen, it will. I now put the pitot cover in sight within the aircraft, not thrown on to a shelf in the hangar, as a lot do, so if I can't remember taking it off, and can't see the pitot tube - low wing aircraft - I can see it in the aircraft ! KISS
Last edited by ExSp33db1rd; 24th September 2011 at 09:11.