Availability of POHs
 

I would like to know why light aircraft POHs are generally not available other than in bound and printed form and have to be ordered from the manufacturer or aviation supplier?

I can download the user manual for most purchases I make, of everything from food mixers to network routers to lawn mower engines, but not aircraft.

So before flying an unfamiliar aircraft, the POH (which legally may not be removed from the aircraft if it is to be flown) has to be read at the airport and replaced within a reasonable time.

If it were possible, the smart way to bone up on an aircraft's performance and limitations would be to download a copy of the POH off the Internet, which could then be studied at leisure at home and referred to whenever necessary. IMHO, by being better informed and prepared, this would result in safer aircraft operation.

So why isn't this information freely available?

So that they can SELL it to you, perhaps?

They've just sold a $200,000 product - what's the sense in trying to squeeze an extra $25 for the information package? The cost of preparing a PDF of the POH would'nt even register in the accounts of the aircraft manufacturer.

I think that you'll find that it gets back to a legal issue.

Owners / Operators / AOC holders for all aircraft are required to keep amendments promptly up to date for all POH's. There would be no control of amendment status of the POH if it were privately available 'off the net' or from some other unofficial source.

I do operate in a company where all of the pilot issued manuals are E-manuals, but there is strict control within the company to ensure that each and every pilot has the 'up to date' manual before operations. Even then, reminders abound within the manuals that their information is not the official operating manuals for the aircraft, the originals may only be found in the aircraft.

It IS an excellent idea, with very difficult 'policing' problems.

Regards,

Old Smokey

I agree this is a difficult problem - especially in a flight school environment where the planes have high utilisation. The solution:- buy a different publishers book on the aircraft type (generally avaialble from Amazon.com) .

All critical parameters are in there and give a good idea of the planes performance. Whilst being aware it is important to have the very latest information onboard aircraft, on trainers etc have things in the document that are important to the safety of flight actually changed that much since the aircraft was first designed in the 1950's or '60s?

Propeller Head, there are places on the internet where you can download POHs, check PMs.

Somebody is trying (albeit probably not hard enough).

G

However, most of these after-market manuals don't include emergency drills, which is a serious deficiency.

G

http://www.esscoaircraft.com

was my little secret. ah well!

any POH for about £25

I can understand that issue well, although I've never seen or been advised about any POH amendments for any of the light planes I've been flying since '72. I get the impression that 99.9999% of the manual, esp. the performance statistics don't change year on year for a specific model, so my new suggestion is that there should be a 'data sheet' - for want of a better description - which has no legal staus (print BIG disclaimer on every page referring to the POH as the ultimate authority) which repeats much if not most of the stuff in the POH, like Vspeeds, performance graphs, t/o and ldg distances, weight & balance, etc.

In my Jepp Instrument Commercial Manual, there are approach plates aplenty with no disclaimer and not dated. How did these get past the lawyers? How many people are out there screwing up approaches by using this out-of-date information because it doesn't say you can't?

Any pilot clever enough to think this one through should be trusted to exercise the same judgement with POH data provided through an alternate channel with suitable annotations.