tom, I must admit I tend to agree more with elvis here. I don't see it as a top gun fight (who is the coolest).
Most GA manufacturers are just not good at producing checklists. They put a normal procedure in a ring book and call it a checklist. My favourite example is the "go around checklist" on most bizjets. It goes something like this: G/A thrust,Pitch up, positive rate, gear up, 400ft flaps up etc. That's not a checklist. That's a procedure. By the time you have a chance to read it it's too late.
Also the cockpits often aren't designed to facilitate flows and the published procedures and checklist don't allow for them.
Why do you think it is that almost everyone who has flown both (airlines and G/A) thinks that airline checklists are better? I think it is mainly because of the manufacturers and the quality of their documentation, not so much the operators or pilots.
Good procedures and checklists do not equal long checklists by the way. The opposite is the case. Flows allow you to do the switching at the appropriate time (phase of flight) and then confirm at an appropriate time by checklist that no essentials (gear, flaps, altimeters etc) have been missed. This is usually quicker and safer than the old read-and-do way of doing things. In fact, when it comes to the landing checklist for example: When do you guys lower the gear? Or extend the flaps? When the checklist tells you to or at the appropriate time? So you do a flow with a follow up checklist, not a read-and-do. Why not use that concept for all of the flight (exept abnormals and emergencies)?
737 yoke checklist:
