HF - you seem you want to have your cake and eat it - either SOPs are the only options or
There will always be "out of the box" scenarios that require experience to satisfactorily solve.
- I would suggest that an engine fire that doesn't conveniently go out when you hit the fire button might come into that category.
Yes we have SOPs and FRCs but they are 'handrails, not handcuffs' to quote one senior examiner - Standard operating procedures are for Standard scenarios and if something unusual occurs (ie a fire not going out), being (potentially) IMC at 500' really isn't going to help either the pilot or the pax, regardless of what the SOP says.
Neither TC or myself are suggesting an 'off-piste' approach to normal ops, only to retain the flexibility and captaincy which, apparently, we have been trained for when something unusual happens.
RAF checklists are also far more extensive than civilian ones
my FRCs are a small A5 document half an inch thick that fit in my flying suit leg pocket - if the 139 checklist is anything to go by, it is massive and very complex by comparison - as I understand it, you are required to have all the aircraft documents on board so you can refer to them in flight if necessary (again judging by the 139 that is a serious amount of paperwork to plough through in the air)
I would, also, hazard a guess that every NS pilot has had a false fire warning but very few have had a real one. So SOPs help prevent a non-event becoming an event
hence my initial post on this subject which was 'check for positive signs of fire' not 'climb to 500' and consult the checklist'.