Originally Posted by
Genghis the Engineer
I do not see carrying a POH in flight as having any flight safety benefit - and if it doesn't, why mandate it?
G
How about when you get to your shortish strip and want to return but it is now pretty hot or you have an extra passenger and want to check the takeoff performance numbers.......
I do agree that looking something up in the POH while in flight, in the context of a single pilot flight in a GA aircraft, is unlikely but most aircraft have convenient stowage in the glove box or side panel/seat back pockets so why not have it available ?
The broader point is something I still feel worth mentioning. The POH seems to get scant attention in flight training yet the ones that come with aircraft built since the 1970's contain a wealth of useful data and need to be read and understood. That is hard to do when they are in the broom closet still is the original, now very yellow plastic wrapping........
POH are also serial number specific and the supplements are just as important as the main chapters. If the aircraft has any STC's than those will come with a flight manual supplement that should be in the back of the POH
Unfortunately older or more unusual aircraft usually have poor or non existent POH's. My Nanchang came with a very poorly translated 8 1/2 by 11 inch bulky hard bound "Flying Directions". It has high entertainment value (eg taxing is to be no faster than the PLAF double quick march pace
) but not a lot useful information. However I found a wealth of useful information through the warbird clubs, online, and from some pretty well translated maintenance manuals. Not having a spiffy nice POH is not an excuse to just ignore POH type information, rather it puts the onus on you to figure out what you need to know and go find it.