Originally Posted by Cubdriver

Saying checklist items and not doing them is an established pitfall. You can easily develop a false sense of confidence not based on reality.

Some elements of the solution are

• Rigid adherence to checklist discipline in training, with instructors who employ distractions (Hoss).
• If approved checklists are not provided (Part 91) then pay particular attention to writing quality self-generated checklists.
• Redundent checkpoints. For example, half mile check for gear down.

Although I love to make stuff up (carefully) I'm very big on checklist discipline with students. If they cannot follow a simple Skyhawk checklist when they are primary students, they cannot be pilots in my view. When I am about ready to sign someone off for a checkride, I take them to a very short field and see what happens. Sure enough just last week, I had a student drop 20 flaps on downwind, which normally flaps go to 10 at key position, 20 on base leg. No reason not to follow the normal flow here, and I took the controls immediately. This student had obviously thrown the whole procedural flow out the window in a rush to cram in a short approach, and had resorted to checklist abandonment. Huge recipe for problems. Tossing the procedural flow a serious defect as far as I am concerned, and this student was almost ready for a checkride. Instead they bumped back multiple flights until I can see a dependable checklist discipline. The only exception is if they say "I am skipping this because of this" and have a clear idea why.