With Maoraigh1 on this one. In the aircraft I fly most regularly, I know the "flows" by heart now, but if I take one of the others I am (not that) current in, the checklist is very welcome and used.
SSD, if indeed checklists for garden variety SEP aircraft are so unnecessary, why is their use advocated and instructed (unlike for cars and motorcycles)? Sheer tradition? Someone making a profit of it? An evil checklist conspiracy? Agreed that it is not an action list to be blindly followed and that there is no need to make a ceremony of each item, but I don't agree with the assertion that they are simply unnecessary even in a simple SEP aircraft. (IMHO this position could even be linked to four of the five pilot's hazardous attitudes if one were so inclined, which would indeed hint at a certain lack of professionalism
.)