Company Aircraft Checklists Biz Av
 

I am interested to hear the views of people on the philosophy of AOC company checklist in the Biz Av community. Should operators always tailor their companies normal aircraft checklist or stick to the manufacturers checklist. Some operators are using the manufacturer electronic checklists installed in the aircraft but these are not tailored to company SOPs. What are the pro's and con's; electronic generic checklist versus company written published pilots checklist adapted to company SOPs.

Must match SOPs

A lot depends on the type of aircraft. Many of the newer electronic aircraft will only work at all if you rigidly follow the manufacturer's procedures, so using their checklist makes sense. at the same time they have (usually) quite short and user friendly checklists.
On the other hand, a lot of older designs there is no real usable checklist; just an extremely long and cumbersome list of required items that the operator has to distil into procedures that cover everything followed up with a useable checklist to verify. And some even older ones don't even have that, but they are pretty rare these days.

So the short answer is there is no short answer! But as MM says, the checklist must match your SOPs otherwise it is worse than useless.

"Must match SOPs" and "must match your SOPs" can be quite different. Coming from the BBJ side of the house, I can tell you that Boeing;s checklists tend to be airline driven with a minimalistic approach to how things may be done. Where as a corporate operator might inject any number of unique points into the list. Obviously you will want to cover the basic safety of flight points, but there may be other reasons to modify the Boeing boiler plate, one size fits all approach.

If you operate the aircraft I fly (an "older type") by the checklist provided from the manufacurer you will never get anywhere. Because the battery will be drained flat by the time you reach the point where it calls for pressing the first starter button. You could of course use ground power to get past that point, but then either your passengers or your other crewmember will have died from boredom or old age or both by the time you are ready to line up on the runway. And even if they are still alive, your engines will have flamed out because tanks have run dry. The sole purpose of that manufacturer's checklist is to cover them against possible liability claims.

So on our type an abbreviated company checklist is a must. Note that beside matching your company's SOPs it must also be approved by your supervising authority. At least if you operate under some supervision (e.g. when flying commercially or under EASA part NCC). Company checklists are one of the favorite items of (SAFA) ramp inspectors... No date on it? No revision number? Not matching the one in your operating manual? Ha! Got you!

This one depends a lot on the type of operation you look at.

Owner pilots that fly once every two month are prob better of following manufacturer CL whereas the every day charter pilots could prob. receive a tailored CL that is adjusted to the companies needs in creating efficient procedures.
Manufacturer CL (at least the ones I know) are usually written for the pilot that flies once every two month.

Regarding electronic CL: If an aircraft has that feature, then it can be adjusted - maintenance knows, usually done via the same port as nav updates.