Martin Gregorie writes
I was explicitly not taught a pre-landing checklist on the grounds that
our trainers (ASK-21, G103, Puchacz) had welded down gear, no water and
no flaps and everything else was airmanship. The assumption was that by
doing a checklist in these I'd learn to say and ignore the inapplicable
items. A bit later the same instructors encouraged me to find a
checklist that suited me when I progressed to something that needed it.
I think this was sound instruction.

Ditto, though in my case the trainers were Ka13's. Still haven't yet
progressed to the point where I fly anything with flaps or water but did
move on to undercarriages last year.

Stressing the relevance of locking it down for landing was a big part of
the instructor's brief when I first converted from the Ka8's. "Three
green lights" was an expression that one of them mentioned as something
he used in his RAF days.

Oddly enough, it's that which slips into my mind just as I enter circuit
these days and prompts me to check, though I've never flown anything
(beyond the confines of my computer screen) where those three green
lights were anything more than metaphorical and don't really expect to
:P

That said, I've never (yet) had a problem with remembering to lock the
undercarriage down. It's remembering to lock it up that still gets me on
the odd occasion . . .

I'll worry about water and flaps when I get that far. Aside from that,
the only checklists I use for myself are good old CB-SIFT-CBE and
HASSLL. I suspect anything else is just a complication that gets in the
way of the whole airmanship bit.

--
Bill Gribble
http://www.harlequin.uk.net
http://www.scapegoatsanon.demon.co.uk
"Consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds" - Emerson