Good for you in designing the panel and checklists together! That's as it should be.
I've written several articles on checklist and panel design, and if you send me your email address, I'll send them to you -- once I find them! And if you want some G3X time to familiarize yourself before you cut metal on your panel, c'mon down to Savannah. The G3X documentation has some points on checklists, but I'm not sure that the documentation has kept up to date on all the changes. And your configuration of other components will make a difference, too. And I've also got an RV-8 that you can sit in and consider other options.
It's also the case that these days, the avionics will have checklist items, not just the airframe. Some of those items can be significant.
If you've studied checklists from different airplanes, you'll have discovered that there are a half dozen or so styles of checklists, all with pluses and minuses. Many GA planes have checklists with obvious shortcomings, and the Mooney 201 and Beech Duchess come to mind. There are very few airplanes with checklists that you can mindlessly copy...
In terms of switch placement, many planes have switches laid out for an easy start. You have lots of time when you're pre-start, but the times that switch placement makes a difference is when you're in the air during a high workload phase, such as before landing or in an emergency situation.
One nice touch on my RV-8 (one of the few planes I've not redone the panel, so I'm not taking credit for this feature) is that the flap and fuel pump switch are next to each other. Both are used on landing and on go around, and it's appropriate for them to be adjacent.
These days, good panel design is an unappreciated, lost art. Glad you're going into it with a different attitude!
Ed
