New flight operations documentation for the A380
**** Hidden Message ***** FAST 429
Francis PAYEUR
Director A380/A350/A400M Operational standards
Flight Operations and Line Assistances
Airbus Customer Services
New flight operations
documentation for the A380
Electronic documentation brings major
improvements in usability and efficiency
Starting from the Middle Ages with the invention of
printing, books have been the common support
material for storing and retrieving information for
knowledge or reference. Aviation did not deviate
from this and from the beginning of commercial
aviation a multitude of paper documents were used
for reference in aircraft daily operations. The
aircraft flight operations manuals are an important
part of this documentation. However, paper
documents have some disadvantages, particularly
for flight operations manuals which are very
dynamic documents that have to provide the flight
crew with the right information at the right time and
are subject to regular updates to stay current with
the deployed fleet. Amongst its disadvantages paper
has low operational capabilities (e.g. no easy way
to retrieve the needed information or to navigate
within several books) and offers low flexibility and
high cost in revision management or customization.
New electronic technology in information
management offered modern capabilities to
introduce new concepts for the flight operations
manuals in an Electronic Flight Bag (EFB) and
even more integrated electronic documentation
(eDoc) in the A380 Onboard Information System
(OIS). This article explains the path from the EFB
to the advantages of eDoc and its integration in the
A380 OIS.
NEW FLIGHT OPERATIONS DOCUMENTATION FOR THE A380
NEW FLIGHT OPERATIONS DOCUMENTATION FOR THE A380
Beginning
with the EFB
Airbus was a pioneer in the
development of the EFB via the
Airbus Less Paper Cockpit (LPC)
project.
The LPC project began in the mid
1990’s, and was implemented first
in line operations in 1997. It led the
way towards the era of electronic
documentation in the cockpit, with
first the reduction of paper, then
paper elimination. The first step in
this significant transition involved
performance calculations (e.g.
takeoff, landing, weight and
balance computations) and then
the introduction of the first
electronic manual: the Flight Crew
Operating Manual (FCOM) based
on SGML (Standard Generalized
Markup Language) data. This
format was then adopted for the
Master Minimum Equipment List
(MMEL).
This solution provided flight crews
with readily accessible, updated, and
optimized information to perform
operational tasks in the cockpit -
their working environment. It also
presented numerous cost and management
advantages to airlines by
simplifying the tedious and costly
paper preparation and distribution
process, and by providing optimized
data to comply with specific
operational needs. With this
innovative LPC project, and its
pioneering introduction into service,
Airbus gained a wealth of
experience in the domains of digital
documentation and the EFB and
from this the eDoc concept was
born.
With the advent of the A380,
new opportunities emerged for an
inventive concept of enhanced
and fully digital operational documentation
displayed on the OIS
terminals integrated in the cockpit.
This new A380 concept of electronic
documentation not only benefits
from the experience obtained
during the development of
the LPC, but also from all of the
new opportunities offered by a
fully digital format and by the
integration of the OIS within the
cockpit and its connection with
other aircraft systems.
The OIS can host the entire EFB
package and provides the flight
crew with all the operational and
mission oriented material that they
need in their daily operations. This
includes technical information,
operating manuals, performance
computation and mission management
information. The OIS eliminates
the need for paper in
the cockpit and replaces it by a
package of comprehensive applications
within the OIS. The birth
of the OIS sets up the eDoc concepts,
and revolutionizes customization
capabilities for the flight
operations manuals.
OIS general
overview
The OIS, also referred to as
Network Server System (NSS), has
two sides: the NSS AVNCS (avionics)
side and the FLT OPS (Flight
Operations) side. The flight crew
can select the side to be displayed
on the two dedicated terminals in
the cockpit.
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NEW FLIGHT OPERATIONS DOCUMENTATION FOR THE A380
NSS AVNCS SIDE
The NSS AVNCS has two servers
that mainly host the applications
and manuals used for maintenance
purposes.
Two-way communication between
the NSS AVNCS and the aircraft
avionics systems is possible via a
secure interface. The NSS AVNCS
also hosts applications for the
flight crew:
• The Airlines Operations Control
(AOC) that the flight crew uses
to communicate with their
airlines flight ops department,
• The electronic logbook.
The NSS AVNCS also hosts the
Cabin Crew Operating Manual
(CCOM) that is displayed on The
Flight Attendant Panel (FAP) and
the Minimum Equipment List that is
available for maintenance purposes.
FLT OPS SIDE
The FLT OPS side is the main side
used by flight crews and has two
laptops that are attached to the
aircraft and connected to the OIS
network. The flight ops side can
receive information from the aircraft
avionics via the NSS AVNCS and
a diode designed to secure
communication from/to the aircraft
avionics. An additional backup
laptop is available that is electrically
powered by the aircraft, but is not
connected to the network. The
laptops host all the flight ops
applications:
• The ops library that contains
all the electronic manuals
that can be used by flight crews:
- Flight Crew Operating Manual
(FCOM),
- Flight Crew Training Manual
(FCTM),
- Cabin Crew Operating Manual
(CCOM),
- Minimum Equipment List
(MEL),
- Aircraft Flight Manual
/Configuration Deviation List
(AFM/CDL),
- Weight and Balance Manual
(WBM),
Airlines can keep or remove any of
the Airbus produced manuals and
put their own manuals in the OIS.
They can also customize the content
of the Airbus manuals to fit their
needs or comply with any local
requirements.
• The performance applications:
Takeoff, landing, in-flight,
loadsheet,
• The mission applications: Nav
charts, Electronic Flight Folder
(EFF)/Flight Follow Up (FFU).
OIS installation
in the cockpit
On board the aircraft the flight
crew uses two dedicated terminals,
referred to as Onboard Information
Terminals (OIT), to display and
operate the flight ops applications.
The flight crew operates each
terminal by using a dedicated
keyboard attached to the folding
table, a pointing device that is
fitted in the folding table, and/or
additional keys near the terminals.
In accordance with regulations, the
A380 OIS installation being fixed,
attached to the aircraft and using
aircraft displays and interface,
it is classified as a Class 3 EFB
installation.
Communication
AOC
Maintenance
CMS
Maint. manuals
eLogbook
MEL/CDL
CCOM
Flt Ops Manuals
FCOM/FCTM
CCOM
MEL
AFM / CDL
Performance
Takeoff
In-flight
Landing
Loadsheet
Mission
EFF/FFU/Charts
Secured two way
communication
Aircraft avionics
NSS AVNCS FLT OPS
FAP
AOC
OIS simplified
schematic architecture
• EFF
• Charts
• Performance
• eDoc
• AOC
• eLogbook
Overview of OIS
flight ops applications
A Class 1 EFB has no installation
in the aircraft (stand alone
laptops connected for electrical
supply only).
A Class 2 EFB is a Class 1 EFB
with an installation in the aircraft
to fix the laptop for use.
NEW FLIGHT OPERATIONS DOCUMENTATION FOR THE A380
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1
2 3
1
eDoc on OIS
eDoc is designed to fit this new
electronic format on the OIS.
This new format enables the
introduction of a considerable
number of new functions within
the A380 operational documentation.
In particular, these include:
• New, structured, electronic
documentation,
• A new Human Machine
Interface (HMI),
• Enhanced consultation modes,
• Information layers,
• Line and training-oriented
development,
• New revision processes and,
• Customization capabilities.
Operational manuals are also used
outside the aircraft, in an office
or on a standalone computer for
example. However, for training
and for operational efficiency
purposes, they will always be
presented and used exactly in the
same way, regardless of the support
that may be used to display them.
Only the functions that require
direct information from the aircraft
are not available when the documentation
is consulted outside
the aircraft.
eDoc structure
The first step of the eDoc implementation
for A380 was development
of specific tools at Airbus.
This started in 2001 with the
specification and development of
tools to support the new format and
all the main new features of the
A380 ops documentation. These
tools, namely OPS DATA, enable
the writing, management and
production of the A380 eDoc.
The primary electronic format
developed for A380 operational
documentation is XML (Extensible
Markup Language) stored in the
OPS DATA databank. The output
is also a set of files in XML format,
and is used as the basis for
electronic consultation and customization
of data by airlines.
The electronic manuals are structured
in Documentary Units (DUs).
OIS in the cockpit
OIT and additional keys 1
Folded keyboard 2
Keyboard 3
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NEW FLIGHT OPERATIONS DOCUMENTATION FOR THE A380
A DU is a small piece of information
that is usually self-explanatory,
self-sufficient, and independently
understandable on its own. It is
made up of a succession of wellorganized
objects and corresponds
to the different types of data that
can be found within the different
manuals.
For example:
• For the FCOM: Descriptions,
procedures, limitations, performance,
• For the MMEL: Descriptions,
malfunction assessment,
dispatch items, operational
procedures.
Each DU has a Document Type
Definition (DTD), which defines
its content, structure and metadata
(information associated with the
DU). The DU can be structured
text, and/or can have illustrations
(in Computer Generated Metafile -
CGM - format), multimedia data
(sound, video), colour, interactive
zones and links (e.g. internal links,
or links to external manuals or
applications). DUs enable such
new functions introduced by the
A380 eDoc as ‘contextual access’
or ‘information layers’ (both
described later).
DUs are also basic elements that
enable configuration management
by technical criteria such as
modifications or Service Bulletins
(SBs). A new management process
enables SBs to be taken into account
in the operational manuals,
even before they are applied, as
soon as airlines have accepted the
SB and decided to incorporate the
modification. In this way, data for
operational manuals can contain
not only the current aircraft definition,
but also, in anticipation of
an SB retrofit, the definition of an
SB (Pre/Post SB Management) after
incorporation.
This Pre/Post SB Management
does not apply to the approved
manuals (e.g. AFM, MMEL).
All DUs are no longer classified in
volumes, but are organized in a
tree structure according to the type
of information. For instance, the
structure of the FCOM is
organized according to the four
different types of information
(descriptions, procedures, limitations
and performance) that can
currently be found in it. This
structure, reflected in the OIS
navigation tree facilitates navigation
within the manual and
simplifies the task-oriented and
contextual approach of the FCOM.
OPS data tool
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From XML data
to the display on
board the aircraft
All DUs are produced in XML
with the graphics in CGM;
multimedia objects are also
incorporated as needed.
To cope with all possible needs,
the frequency of the exchange of
revised data between airlines and
Airbus is contractual with each
airline defining how often they
need to receive revisions from
Airbus. The shortest frequency
is monthly. These customized
revision frequencies provide airlines
with the possibility of
regularly obtaining eDoc revisions
for updating documentation
onboard the aircraft and increases
the flexibility of the data
customization process. Furthermore,
regard-less of which revision
frequency is selected, Airbus can
also initiate revisions for the
dispatch of urgent information
(e.g. ‘real time’ up-dates). For the
benefit of custo-mers, XML data
packages that are produced are
available on the Airbus customer
portal (AirbusWorld). The XML
raw data are either:
• Used as is for OIS consultation.
In this case, the XML data
is simply converted into
Hyper Text Markup Language
(HTML) format using
a publisher tool developed
by Airbus: OPS PUBLISHER,
• Used as source data
for establishing a customized
and in-house developed airline
operating manual. In this case,
airlines can use Airbus
developed editing
and management tools
(ADOC – Airbus Document
system or FOSP – Flight
Operations Standard Package)
or their own XML tools
to customize the Airbus data
as needed, or as required
by their local authorities.
One of the greatest advantages of
the A380 eDoc is its customization
capability.
This helps airlines cope with their
operational needs, offers them
increased flexibility and facilitates
their workload and the reworking
of Airbus data. In addition, it helps
airlines benefit from all of the new
Airbus eDoc functions.
All airlines manage and update
their Airbus operational manuals in
different ways, such as:
• Used, as is, for line operations,
or,
• Complemented by some
other information, operations
manuals, or modified to suit
operational needs, airline policy,
or airworthiness requirements.
Some of the reasons include:
- To ensure fleet commonality,
- To specify the applicable
standards enforced
by the airline,
- To comply with an applicable
operational regulation
(e.g. Joint Airworthiness
Requirements -JAR OPS-,
Federal Aviation Requirements
part 121) and/or the need
for a local adaptation
of these regulations.
With these different variables,
it is possible that not only the
structure of the manuals may
change, but also the technical
content. For some manuals this
customization is necessary and
even required by regulations, for
example, to transition from the
Airbus MMEL to the airline’s
Minimum Equipment List (MEL),
which is then modified according
to local requirements.
The editing, management and
publishing tool has a function to
publish the XML raw data in the
consultable format of HTML. The
end result of this is data ready for
loading into the OIS onboard the
aircraft. The OIS has a specific
application that has been defined
and developed by Airbus to display
the data on the OIS: The Flight Ops
Consultation Tool (FOCT). This
development has been made in
a fully integrated way within
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the A380 programme development.
Therefore, due to its integration
within the A380 cockpit, Human
Factor considerations have been
applied for its development.
Human Machine
Interface (HMI)
With the fast growth of electronic
information for direct use by the
flight crew in performing their
tasks in the cockpit, various
stu-dies, directives and regulations
have been issued to provide Human
Factors (HF) considerations in
developing and using electronic
documentation.
Among all the published documents,
the Federal Aviation
Agency/Volpe Center document:
‘Human Factors Considerations in
the Design and Evaluation of
Electronic Flight Bags’ (ref DOTVNTSC-
FAA-006-22) provides an
extensive reference for the
development and definition of the
A380’s eDoc HMI.
The eDoc HMI is also defined in
accordance with general OIS HMI
rules, and in compliance with
cockpit HMI rules.
In addition, in the OIS platform
certification or, more extensively, in
the cockpit HF certification
process, special HF demonstrations
for OIS applications, including
eDoc have been run with a large
variety of pilots from airlines,
authorities and Airbus.
The eDoc and its operational use
was also evaluated in the generic
operational approval of the OIS
applications conducted by Airbus.
This generic approval eases the
operational approval to use the
electronic documentation that is
required for each individual airline.
In this way, an integrated Joint
Operational Evaluation Board
(JOEB) made of representatives
from the Federal Aviation Agency
(FAA), European Aviation Safety
Agency (EASA) and Transport
Canada evaluated the use of
the eDoc in an operational environment.
From this, HF aspects
were taken into consideration in
Raw data
XML format
Airline data
XML format
XML data
Pdf (e.g. for content validation
purposes)
eDoc on OIS and on ground
Editing/management
and publishing tools
AIRBUS
Customization and publishing
Airline
From Airbus
to the aircraft
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defining the final role of eDoc and
its HMI, which was designed to
help the end-users –flight crews–
to access the correct information,
at the right time, with the correct
level of detail, and to provide the
right interface to easily navigate
through the information.
Among the main HF criteria used
to define the eDoc HMI were:
Learning capacity, efficiency, clarity,
consistency, safety…
eDoc main new
features
The eDoc electronic format offers
many possibilities for enhanced
consultation and navigation within
the flight ops manuals. It enables
the introduction of attractive, useful
and easy to use functions to
facilitate consultation and displays
the information in an attractive
way in colour with realistic representations
of aircraft displays and
pilot’s interfaces.
ENHANCED CONSULTATION MODES
Various consultation modes and
search capabilities are available.
The eDoc can be consulted in a
conventional way by steering
through the navigation tree in a
linear mode. With this, users can
recognize the typical structure of
flight ops manuals and select in the
navigation tree the information
they need. Some of the other
capabilities include:
WORDSEARCH
The electronic format offers word
search to find any information
containing the selected word(s).
CONTEXTUAL ACCESS
One of the greatest advantages of
the electronic format, due to its
integration in the cockpit
environment, is the possibility to
receive data from the aircraft
avionics systems. This is known as
contextual access and permits
Contextual access
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a task-oriented access to information.
Contextual access offers the flight
crew an easy and rapid way of
accessing information from the
eDoc (particularly the FCOM and
MMEL) without needing to know
the manuals structure and/or where
to look for relevant information
as the eDoc finds it for them.
This is automatically achieved via
alerts that come from the ECAM
(Electronic Centralized Aircraft
Monitor). An ECAM alert is used
by the OIS to automatically preselect
relevant information from
the eDoc. For HF and certification
reasons, the OIS does not automatically
display the information so
the flight crew can continue to
concentrate on their basic tasks and
are not distracted.
They can access this pre-selected
information when desired.
In addition, if an ECAM alert has
an impact on landing performance,
the OIS LDG PERF application
also receives this information so
that the flight crew can easily
compute any performance impact.
This automatic function will be
available on board aircraft with the
OIS version available by April
2009.
The contextual access function
significantly reduces and even
virtually eliminates the time required
to search for and retrieve information.
Consequently, this enables
the flight crew to easily and readily
access information and respond more
quickly to operational situations.
INTERFACE SEARCH
Another access mode is the
interface search. By selecting a
panel on a cockpit diagram, the
user can access information that relates
to the panel. This function
will be available with the OIS version
available by April 2009.
ENHANCED CONSULTATION
FUNCTIONS
INFORMATION LAYERS
Operational documentation, and
particularly the FCOM, has many
varied uses. Basically, flight crews
use the FCOM to perform their
daily tasks. However, the FCOM is
also commonly used by airlines
for training purposes and by their
operations and scheduling personnel.
The FCOM can also be used as a
reference document for the creation
of an Airlines Operations Manual
(AOM). As such, it can be used as
is, or complemented, or even
reworked and customized with
specific airline material (e.g.
airline policy, training philosophy,
national requirements).
Airlines have therefore expressed
varying needs for the level of
information that they would like
the FCOM to provide. To support
these needs, information layers are
now implemented in the A380
FCOM: up to three layers of
information are available and users
can filter this information in
accordance with their needs and
the level of detail required. The
A380 FCOM is directly written
conside-ring these layers. Selection
of the layer desired for consultation
is made via dedicated controls on
the OIS and the function applies to
both text and graphics.
INTERFACE SEARCH
Library Word search Interface search Index search Bookmarks
Layer 1 provides ‘need to know’
information: Typically, this is the
minimum amount of information
necessary for the flight crew in
operations and basically corresponds
to information they need
to know for their initial training.
Computer Based Training (CBT)
contains almost the same level of
information
Layer 2 provides ‘nice to know’
information: This can be used
as reference for the flight crew
to fully understand the logic
of the aircraft-pilot interface
Layer 3 provides ‘detailed
information’: This is not likely
to be used in flight, but provides
more expertise, rationale and
explanation with clarification and
amplification material that can be
used at an airline’s discretion
Three layers of information
Interface search
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PERFORMANCE INFORMATION
Performance information and data
are also part of the FCOM.
In the paper FCOM the performance
sections are made of
basic operational performance
information together with a suite of
performance charts and tables for
takeoff, landing and in-flight
performance.
In the LPC, and for airlines having
implemented it, takeoff and landing
performance was already available
in electronic format with the LPC
takeoff and landing modules.
However, this did not preclude the
use of some paper performance
information, e.g. for in-flight
performance.
The A380 FCOM and OIS go
beyond this with no need for paper
performance data. All the charts
previously available in the FCOM
are replaced by performance
applications. To ensure full
coverage of performance data in
electronic format, a new performance
application, the ‘In-Flight
Per-formance Application’ has
been created.
1
2
3
Information layers
in the FCOM
From paper to electronic
performance data
Layer 3 information
Layer 2 information
Layer 1 information
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OTHER ADVANCED CONSULTATION
FUNCTIONS
Taking advantage of the electronic
format, various advanced consultation
functions are implemented
in the A380 eDoc to enhance
consultation and ease navigation
within the whole flight ops documentation
and include:
LINKS
Each eDoc manual is no longer
consulted as a standalone manual.
Users can directly navigate from
one manual to any other linked
manual or operational application.
For instance, links between the
FCOM abnormal procedures and
the MMEL enable easy assess of
dispatch conditions for associated
failures. For MMEL items with
a performance impact, the relevant
performance application is linked
to the MMEL item to ease performance
computation in a degraded
configuration. These links between
the ops manuals or applications
enable flight crews to quickly and
easily navigate between them. In
addition, and most importantly,
they not only reduce the flight
crew’s workload by preventing multiple
data entries, but also increase
accuracy and safety by
preventing sources of errors from
such multiple data entries.
MULTIMEDIA/INTERACTIVE ZONES
The flight ops manuals and particularly
the FCOM description
part is mainly constructed around
graphics with interactive zones. By
clicking on these zones users can
access any information for this part
of the graphic.
SOUNDS
The FCOM also includes all
sounds that can be generated
by the aircraft systems (e.g. Flight
Warning System or Surveillance
System) and some videos (e.g., to
show sequences of actions).
Interactive zones
Example:
Aircraft systems
oxygen
NEW FLIGHT OPERATIONS DOCUMENTATION FOR THE A380
Audio and video
in the FCOM
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Previous paper operational documents
suffered from disadvantages in consulting
in an operational or training environment
and also in the time, process
and frequency of updating with revisions,
the difficulty of integrating airline
and Airbus content and various others.
When electronic documents became
available, with the introduction of the
Airbus LPC, they offered opportunities to
reduce these disadvantages. These were
a first step towards a new concept
of flight operations documentation.
Now, the advanced technology of the
A380 enables a further step to be made
with an enhanced concept of electronic
operational documentation that can be
displayed on the OIS of the aircraft.
This new concept benefits from the
experience gained by the airlines
and Airbus with the LPC and is enriched
by the new opportunities offered by A380
systems and electronic documents
to enable a much better integration of task
oriented operational documentation
in the cockpit. Customer satisfaction
was a prime objective for the new A380
flight operational documentation so
airlines were deeply involved from
the beginning, particularly in the FCOM,
FCTM and MMEL.
The A380 operational documentation
is setting new standards for ease of use,
functionality, airline and Airbus data
integration and numerous others.
This will be beneficial for existing and
future projects such as the A400M and the
A350 XWB. In addition, it will benefit the
evolving Airbus ‘Going Digital’ project for
the A320, A330/A340 families and will
help operational documentation to cruise
to new heights of usability.
Conclusion
CONTACT DETAILS
Francis PAYEUR
Director A380/A350/A400M
Operational standards
Flight Operations Support
and Services
Tel: 33 (0)5 61 93 30 29
Fax: 33 (0)5 61 93 29 68
francis.payeur@airbus.com
PERSONAL NOTES
In some cases flight crews may
need to add personal notes on the
manuals for their own records, so
the manuals provide an annotating
function. The notes are attached to
each Documentary Unit and can be
easily retrieved via the navigation
tree, which automatically creates a
specific chapter with all notes
available. Additionally, the notes
can be exported for sharing with
other users.
Notes in the flight ops
manuals 感谢楼主资料 感谢楼主！ 感谢楼主！:D 收了，好东西 感谢楼主！ 学习一下 赞一个
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