Operators Manual?

[Genghis the Engineer]

A simple question.

Those of you who fly club or syndicate aircraft, how many of you...

(a) Have easy access to the full operators manual?
(b) Were encouraged to read it before flying the aircraft?

I have strong views on the importance of operators manuals, and suspect that the general answer to the above is NO and No. But, I'd just like to know.

G

[jabberwok]

Terrible silence here isn't there?

Manuals have been readily available in most clubs I have frequented but I wouldn't say I have ever found any great impetus for pilots to read them.

You only have to bring up the question of weight and balance to see how many club pilots have looked at them :)

[kanga]

operators manual...
what the hell is that?!
;)

[englishal]

I always buy the POH for each type of A/C I fly. Ok its not "the" POH for the individual A/C but its good as a reference.

[fallen eagle]

I always made sure the P.O.H.s were available for my students,as they were for me when I was learning.Even kept photocopies so those nearing completion to take them away to study.I know copywite probs there but what the hell whats more important?bye for now

[Sleeve Wing]

Hail Genghis.
All Club-operated aircraft at the Aero Club I operate from have a GO-BAG, kept in a special storage cupboard in Flight Briefing.
This contains all the compulsory documentation/ approvals /certificates and P.O.M for a particular aircraft.

The GO-BAG is always taken on land-away flights, along with the Tech.Log and a completed Weight and Balance Sheet for that leg, with further blanks contained as standard.The POM is required of course to source the W.and B. data.

Rgds,Sleeve.

[jabberwok]

The GO-BAG is always taken on land-away flights, along with the Tech.Log and a completed Weight and Balance Sheet for that leg, with further blanks contained as standard.The POM is required of course to source the W.and B. data.



An excellent concept - one that ought to be adopted by every club..

[Rallye Driver]

When I was learning to fly, as far as I remember the only time I saw all the documentation assembled was when I was preparing for the GFT. The club distributed sheets with the weight and balance data for all the aircraft which were available for routine flight planning. The POHs were available on request, but many people used the little A5 booklets you can buy from Transair etc covering the basic info for common types such as C152 or PA28.

I am now involved in group flying, and we give each new member a photocopy of the POH along with a checklist derived from it (as commercial ones are not available).

I have also assembled relevant data on the back of a flight planning sheet which gives weight & balance figures and graphs, fuel burn, landing and take off distances, plus the factors for calculating the TORA and LDA so that all the key information is to hand. This has been distributed as a .pdf file for members to print out and seems to work OK. We don't work every single thing out every time we fly, only if there may be a problem. But I suppose we should.

I know that the new JAR PPL has an additional exam for flight planning, so maybe all the new pilots coming along are more aware of these things.

It's already been a bad year for GA accidents and now with the hotter days comes degraded performance and plans to go further afield. Maybe we should all be revisiting these basics we all learned what seems like a long time ago, to avoid becoming statistics ourselves.

RD

[M14P]

Ghengis - Interesting point.

I know that most people get all sleepy eyed and grumpy at the merest mention of a manual. However, I have supplied all of the members of my group with a manual which is 'editorialised' a little like an OM so as to promote knowledge about the aircraft and encourage good technique. There's also a little about SOPs in there.

Some people think this is all a little sad but I am really keen on knowledge overpowering myth and misconception

Cheers

[BayAreaLondoner]

I flew last week from a club in the Netherlands and noticed a similar "go bag" for the aircraft. In addition, an up to date copy of the POH and W&B report was available in the office.

I too, purchase both a checklist (or create my own) and POH for the aircraft I fly. The FBO in the US I fly from keeps the POHs and W&B reports in the aircraft, together with the registratin and airworthiness documents (per FAA regulations). In the office, they keep a single piece of paper with all the W&Bs for the aircraft. This is quite useful, but I tend to double check these with the actual numbers in the aircraft "just in case".

One thing that concerns me a little about changing aicraft is that procedures do vary. For example, there are differences between fuel injected and non-fuel injected Cessna startup sequences. Similarly, V-speeds may vary.

BAL.

[I have control]

I must admit that I trained for my PPL a couple of years ago as a group shareholder in a small plane and never looked at any kind of manual...

I remember reading the textbooks and thinking 'what's this "POH" they keep referring me to?'...