I'm about a hundred pages back in the reads but somewhere there there was a question about which checklists were used back then.
I may not have got to the answers that were given yet but I can give an answer from my flight training days (all ex WW2 RAAF flight instructors)
They didnt use checklists in WW2.
What they used were the pilot handling notes for each aircraft. These are the sorts of things you can buy as reprints in the shops tacked on to all the british aviation museums. a guy would study the guide for all the needed info. stall speeds, rpm settings and anything peculiar to the aircraft.
The guy would then sit in an aircraft for a while and work out where all the doodads were and where all the switches and taps were.
when you were seated in readiness to go flying the guy would start from one side of the cockpit and just methodically work across the cockpit turning everything off. when he got to the other side of the cockpit he would then methodically work back to the start setting everything in readiness for flight.
after the startup he would do a "ROGER" check
Revs to a thousand
Oil pressure showing signs of life
Gyro suction showing some activity
Electrics turned on
Radios on and set to frequency.
he would then taxy out to the warmup point.
this simple approach was used in the flying of all allied WW2 aircraft.
since the mid 70's in australia we have had to use checklists, endless checklists. It may be chastening to people to realise that BUTMPFISCHH is actually the left to right scan of a Tiger Moth.
When I finally got clear of all my instructors I reverted to the old wartime method of handling my aircraft because it is just so much simpler.
anyway answer number two. resume own navigation.
