While waiting for MS to re-enter the game I moved over to X-Plane for a few years and while there I found this wonderful little app called xChecklist (https://forums.x-plane.org/index.php?/files/file/20785-xchecklist-linwinmac/) that you could build out your own checklist for any plane you wanted and it knew about all the systems. If a checklist item was already set it was already marked as checked and you just moved to the next item. You could set it up as one long list or break it into multiple phases of flight. Whatever you wanted. Each item would need to be checked before you could move to another phase. I would never miss a step with this.

On FS2020 I have a nice sheet I use, and it's perfectly tailored to just the right amount of depth for me and the CRJ. However, it's just a Google sheet so there's zero validation, etc. 

Is there anything like this for FS2020? 

I've seen a few checklist products, but they all seem a) locked in that there's no personalizing so it's a case of doing every single step the app wants, period, b) overly done like requiring speech recognition which would be a major hassle when it fails on something like VATSIM, c) robotic, d) not automated so while they can step you through things they really have no sense of the current state of the systems in question.

The in-game checklist does that, and more. If you enable assisted checklist (or similar name) in the assistance options, and the click on evaluation in the checklist, then it automatically progresses to the next item after you confirmed the the current item is done. In addition,

1. the camera may focus on a specific switch or gauge if you click on the eye symbol in the checklist

2. the state of a switch or button can be evaluated automatically, including automatic progression if the conditions are met

3. The co-pilot can read out checklist items.

Now to the downside. It is a bit of a learning curve to  create such checklists. You have to edit a XML file and set up a certain file structure. You could start using existing checklists available on flightsim.to as templates. If you avoid points 1. and 2. above, the whole procedure is not too difficult.

However, points 1 and 2 are hard to implement. You need to gather information about the internal variables associated with a switch, and about the location of the switch animation in the VC. That means scanning through large XML files, or using FSUIPC logging to figure out the variables. Depending on the airplane, it may even be impossible to get this information for some, or all, cockpit instruments.

Peter

Peter,

Are you saying I am able to remove or add items to the in-game checklists? For example, the checklists rarely refer to things that are critical for me, like calling for the jetway, when to call ATC on VATSIM, and many more.

In the CRJ these are in the EFB. I am not aware of any means to edit these lists to my liking, but what you mention is certainly work my looking into. The co-pilot thing is nice, but I find those things annoyingly robotic and repetitive. I'm still waiting for someone to treat these processes the way they should be, with varied voices (so that the feel isn't that you always fly with the same person) and a matrix of dozens if not hundreds of phrases that, when combined give the feedback a much more natural cadence and feel. 

The challenges you mention I understand. It's a pity the current design state is such that these things are buried in complexity.

Edited April 29, 20233 yr by Agrajag

1 hour ago, Agrajag said:

Are you saying I am able to remove or add items to the in-game checklists?

That depends. If you bought a plane from market place, chances are the files are encrypted. Otherwise, yes, you can modify the files, but I would advise not to change the original file. Instead, make a copy of it and create a new folder in the community folder (such as in https://flightsim.to/file/16797/pmdg-dc-6-in-game-checklist ). If you modify the original file, it may happen that it will be overwritten with the next update for the airplane.

But in principle, yes, you can add whatever items you desire. I don't have the CRJ (I never liked that the real airplane does not have auto-throttle), so I cannot give you specific suggestions.

Peter

Yeah, the plane is the Aerosoft plane and I got it from the market. Silly me thinking I wanted to support the effort of everything being in one place and, of course, getting screwed in the process. 

However, that said, it seems I still would do better finding an outside app.

And, it also seems (now that I turned on your suggestion) that I really need this additional app as the CRJ doesn't have a checklist at all that the sim sees. It has its own in its EFB and it's in no way interactive.

Edited April 29, 20233 yr by Agrajag