One thing I do as a pilot, btw, is that for each item on the checklist I touch the actual control (and sometimes even activate on and off again, for example the

One thing I do as a pilot, btw, is that for each item on the checklist I touch the actual control (and sometimes even activate on and off again, for example the alternate static air intake). It serves several purposes: * it ensures that you actually look and check, not just say the magic incantation ("fuel selector valve: BOTH") out of habit, and * for rarely used controls (such as the alternate static air source), it familiarises you with it once per flight, so you don't fumble around in case you need it. Not all pilots do that. I wonder whether there are studies on whether this helps. Certainly, there are many cases of planes crashing because pilots forgot to do certain items, even though they were on the checklist and the pilots have gone through the checklist. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lufthansa_Flight_540 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lufthansa_Flight_540 ("The flight engineer was found to have failed to open the slat system bleed air valves as required on the pre-flight checklist.") https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helios_Airways_Flight_522 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helios_Airways_Flight_522 ("the flight crew overlooked the pressurisation system state on three separate occasions: during the pre-flight procedure, the after-start check, and the after take-off check. During these checks, no one in the flight crew noticed the incorrect setting."