Funny things Flight Manuals say
 

A part of my job is writing Flight Manual Supplements for modified aircraft. There are specified formats to be followed, but beyond that, I try to do a good job, and write a document which flows well, and is easy and effective for the pilot to use, while being brief. So, I also consider existing Flight Manuals, and Supplements in this context. So, sometimes things catch my eye...

I've bee reviewing the Flight Manual for the Cessna Grand Caravan, as I have some flying to do in one in the next week or so.

Emergency Procedures - Engine Failure During Flight
1. Airspeed ... 95 KIAS
2. Power Lever ... Idle
3. Prop RPM Lever ... Feather
4. Fuel Condition Lever ... Cutoff
5. Wing Flaps Handle ... Up
6. Fuel Boost Switch... Off
7. Fuel Shutoff Knob... Pull Off
Then, a number of "turn off electrical" items - so far so good... then, last item....
12. Flight.... Terminate (as soon as possible) (as described in Emergency Landing Without Engine Power)

Yeah... I'm thinking you don't need to make it an emergency procedures checklist item to tell the pilot to terminate the flight as soon as possible, as they are looking through the feathered prop of the stopped engine that they have secured! The flight is already terminating itself!

We'll see what other interesting logic paths people find in flight manuals. Some may have explanations, but, as I have found, Flight Manuals are written by humans, and reviewed by other humans, and I too have acted in both of those roles!

Seems perfectly sensible to abjure the P1 not to hang around wasting ''gliding'' time looking to reach a ''better'' looking field, just get it down PDQ.

mike hallam.

Aaahhh, watch out for the legal vultures thermalling with their liability claims DAR, driver head down trouble shooting and not paying attention to setting up for the inevitable comes to mind, nothing a legal won't stoop to for a payout. :p I've read that a third of the cost of a GA single is for liability insurance, I bet the manuals are poured over by the manufacturers legal team prior to issue. Have been staggered at the size of car manuals in the US, a veritable encyclopaedia when compared to ours, saying do this, don't do that. Of course there is the story of the RV driver who set the cruise control and went back to make a cuppa and was surprised when the vehicle speared off the road. Apocryphal or not, they do reside out there.

.............Blimey!!!

Over my many years of involvement with gliding, I've had to decipher poor English translations of Flight Manuals from Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Romania and Germany, but eventually i was able to get the gist of the text.

A couple of years ago I had my first exposure to the manual for the DG1000 high-performance two-seater. This glider has a slot in the fin, where you can install up to 12 Kg of factory weights, to ensure that the CG stays within limits for various pilot weights. The manual is better written than older German glider manuals, but the sections that relate to CG calculations are particularly difficult to understand. These sections conflate hard loading-limits with "advice" about weight distribution, which seems to be aimed at keeping the loaded CG away from the certificated limits.

Based upon my previous experience of poor translations into English, I thought "Aha, I'll have a look at the original German manual," So after downloading it and resurrecting my grammar-school German, combined with an online dictionary, I was disappointed to discover that the German manual is equally incomprehensible!