"Civil manuals on the other hand are not paid for in the contract and although there is a style manual (ATA 100) the manufacturer can determine the level and detail of the technical content". .. .I suggest that civil manuals are paid for, and are exceptionally expensive. Initial purchases are $thousands (my BK117 maintenance manuals cost me about $20k, 5 years ago) and annual upgrades are also high, depending upon the manufacturer. Even microfiche from the likes of ATP aren't much cheaper, eg about $US900/annum for an A109.. .. .Part of the upgrade of my 117 to -B2 standard was $US2500 for a 'new' flight manual, which was effectively the -B1 manual with charts interpolated an extra 150kg, and all the pages changed to read -B2 instead of -B1 <img border="0" title="" alt="[Eek!]" src="eek.gif" />