Pity the new student who is cursed with different instructors on almost every lesson; each of whom only teach what they in turn were taught - repeat ad nauseum.
Having learned a whole variety of mnemonics when I learned to fly, I have forgotten all except two. The first was PPUFF on final in a Tiger Moth which my brand new wet behind the ears Grade C (now called Grade 3) told me were "Killer" items. They stood for Pitch (not applicable). Power Poles. Undercarriage (not applicable). Flaps (not applicable). Feathered friends. Another instructor told me that was all bulldust and forget it. But how could I forget it when they were KILLER ITEMS?
Another instructor (seriously experienced with four gold bars on his shoulders, a BIG watch, a pair of BIG wings and a dinky coloured ID card dangling from his neck like one of those old grannies who have their spectacles hanging by a looped cord around their neck), well he told me to remember a mnemonic which I shall never forget and that was the wonderful MFFHHB.
Now I could never remember what each letter technically represented but I never forgot "My Friend Fred Has Hairy Balls" which, I was assured by that particular instructor, were the dreaded KILLER items before landing in a Tiger Moth. They stood for: Mixture. Fuel on. Flaps (not applicable but just in case I might fly a Boeing 747 one day in the future) Hatches. Harness. Brakes (not applicable in early Tiger Moths) In later years I wondered why airline pilots don't use mnemonics because they can be good fun.
One Pprune contributor to this thread said: "What was painfully annoying was flying with 7 or 8 different instructors up to CPL. Changing instructors every other flight was much more of a problem than a checklist. Read the list do the actions. Not that difficult.
Remembering all the little ridiculous things my multitude of instructors would insist on me doing was much more stressful"
I can only sympathise with him.
Yet another Ppruner, asks: "What's the O in BOUMFISH/BOUMFAH?". I have not a clue. Perhaps he should Google it? Maybe if general aviation flying school checklists weren't so illogical and lengthy, confusing mnemonics would go out of vogue.
Yet another Ppruner makes the point: "probably can't blame the flying schools. CASA imagine the more items in a checklist the safer it is, and a lot of the time it is FOI's who dictate this stuff."
Comment: It is up to the CFI or chief pilot of the operation to have the bottle to refuse to acquiesce to the whims of particular FOI's who demand checklist items be added or changed to suit his personal opinion. Make sure of your facts first, of course. FOI's are not experts. They are just normal pilots like you or me except they are fortunate enough to have cushy secure government paid work. They are Public Servants. You are perfectly entitled to disagree with Public Servants.