On 17 Dec, 09:04, 309 wrote:

P.S.: The mere act of WRITING a checklist helps you truly understand
the aircraft systems (simple or not), the proper operating procedures
(and perhaps a better "flow" of the steps than the manufacturer
originally suggested).

I wrote my rigging and derigging instructions on the basis that
someone someday might have to take my glider apart while I was
elsewhere (in hospital? under arrest? dead?). It was quite instructive
to commit to writing all the wrinkles I had developed myself.

The benefit of this remains -- although less
so -- even if you never use the list again. Look at pilots &
instructors who fly multiple types of aircraft: They use checklists
(sometimes very short ones that are referred to as "cheat sheets") so
they refresh their mind that this aircraft has a best L/D speed of y
and a min sink speed of x (or for power, Vx, Vy, Vglide, VLE, VLO,
Vfe, Vmc, Va, Vne, Vno).

I had the pleasure of working with Anne Welch some years ago. When she
was in the Air Transport Auxiliary during the Second Big
Unpleasantness she wrote many of the single sheet briefing notes
designed to let a (good) pilot do a basic delivery flight in a new
type safely. They make fascinating reading - who operating manuals
stripped to the absolute minimum. Undercarriage up with three pulls on
this lever, down with five pumps on that. Take off vacuum and rpm so,
cruise so, landing so.

All BGA gliders have a placard giving Vne, Vwinch, Vaerotow and
Vroughair, and I make it my policy /always/ to reread that before /
every/ launch. Good grief, I'm a checklist user!

Ian