A couple of general comments.
1) It is important to differentiate between "do lists" (ie you read the item and then do it and then move to the next item etc etc) and "checklists" ( ie you do the whole check like the prelanding one and then you check that you have not missed anything by reading the "checklist"). For PPL's I teach that in general, checks that are done on the ground with the aircraft stopped or in cruise flight are done as "do lists" and the ones where the aircraft is moving or manoevering in the air are done as "checklists". So you get the following
Prestart = do list
After start= checklist
Taxi = do list
Runup = checklist
Pretakeoff = do list
Cruise = do list
Descent and approach = do list
Prelanding = checklist
Afterlanding = checklist
shutdown = do list
2) Flight schools are notorious for IMO stupidly long checklists. This is because they use the checklist as an instructional tool instead of it s true purpose which is as a safety of flight tool. The only items on a checklist should be ones where if they are missed the safety of the flight will be degraded. Following this philosophy greatly reduces the number of items on a checklist. For example my C172 prelanding check is only 4 items: fuel both, mixture rich, carb heat as required and brakes checked.
3) Checklists should flow in a logical order. Again for the C 172 all my normal and emergency checks start at the fuel selector and make a counterclockwise circle around the instrument panel ending at the throttle. Many checklists jump all over the place without any logical order.
If you are an experienced pilot fling a simple airplane a lot like Pilot DAR's C 150 then a simple flow check without using any paper is IMO perfectly normal. However if you are a low time PPL flying 15 hours a year then the discipline of full and complete checklist use is IMO imperative for safe flying.
Last edited by Big Pistons Forever; 13th July 2012 at 00:54.