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So a couple days ago they are returning home and at 24000 feet they suddenly felt this explosive decompression and the cabin filled with smoke and really hot air. No masks dropped down (charters don't have masks(?)) so they had to breathe through their shirts. Meanwhile the pilots make a quick descent to 10,000
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the aircraft has to have oxygen masks if the airplane is going to be higher than 14,000 feet
far 91.211 , so i am assuming what they told you was true about the backup system, and the cabin depressurized from around 7-8 thousand feet up to like 12-13 thousand and therefore the masks would not drop.
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Ya, it seems like they should be able to do it by memory. I guess it's a good idea to go through a checklist but it would have me worried if I'm flying out of the amazon on a grass strip with who the hell knows in the cockpit. Wouldn't the thought of this guy not even knowing how to operate an aircraft cross your mind? It's not something we ever see in the U.S so it would have to be a little concerning.
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On big commercial planes there is a copilot who can help to make 100% sure the pilot has done everything right at takeoff. With one pilot it makes perfect sense that he checks the book every single time, just in case.
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there are different types of checklists, a few are do-lists, like engine start where you must go step by step and do it in that order. most are flow patterns that you learn as a pilot and the checklist is then used for redundancy to ensure all things were completed, that pilot could be certified in several types of airplanes and therefore it would be very hard to memorize all the different checklists. So the fact that the checklist is out is very standard and should comfort you more than anything showing he is actually verifying he did everything.