Ex-Pat, interesting story, but if one reads the many incident reports of gear up landings/wrong lever moved {gotta love those manufacturers who reverse pitch/mixture levers} reading the checklist in no way prevents this kind of error, what does prevent such blunders in a two crew aircraft is for the PNF confirming that the other guy has the correct control selected, and the PNF not moving it till he gets that confirmation. As for the procedures at the company you mention, sounds like all flight deck discipline and SOPs were thrown out the door on start up. As for flying differing types I once flew for an outfit in which we were "Multi Qualified Incompetent" on six different types, and nobody forgot the gear ever, or miss selected it, we used "flow checks" for normal operations, not endless checklists, by the way, some of these types were so bloody noisy one could hardly hear the other guy even with the intercom on max volume!