飞行员操作飞行手册Pilot Operational Flying Manual

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Line Check 314

Alternative Seat Position Check 314

Crew Resource Management 314

Recent Experience 315

Multi-Type Currency 315

Freelance Pilots 315

Company Training Captains 316

TRI (MPA) – Minimum Requirements 316

TRE – Minimum Requirements 317

Table Of Contents xiii

SFI – Minimum Requirements 317

SFE – Minimum Requirements 317

Line Training Captain 317

Guidance to Training Captains 317

Simulated Flight Conditions 319

On Becoming An Examiner 319

Preliminaries 320

The Briefing 320

The Flight 321

Glossary 323

ACARS 323

Adequate External Attitude Reference 323

Aerial Work Zone 323

Aerial Work Zone Plan 323

Aerodrome 323

Adequate 323

Suitable 323

Aerodrome Operating Minima 323

Air Ambulance flight 324

Approach Ban 324

Approach to landing 325

APU 325

Avoid Curve 325

Balanced Field Length 325

Category I (Cat I) Operation 325

Category II operation 325

Category III operations 325

Circling Approach 325

Circling Minima 325

Climb Compliance 326

Cloud Base 326

Cloud Ceiling 326

Dead Man’s Curve 326

Decision Altitude/Height (DA/H) 326

Defined Area 326

Despatch 326

Dry Operating Mass (DOM) 326

EADI 326

ELT 326

EPR 326

ETOPS 327

ETOPS Segment 327

Extended Range Entry Point 327

Final Approach 327

Flight Manual 327

Height/Velocity Envelope 327

xiv Operational Flying

High Seas 327

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Indirect Approach 327

In-flight Visibility 327

Inoperative 327

Long Range flight 328

Low Visibility Take-off 328

Low Visibility Procedures (LVPs) 328

Maximum Zero Fuel Mass 328

Maximum Structural Landing Mass 328

Maximum Structural Take-Off Mass 328

Minimum Descent Altitude/Height (MDA/H) 328

Minimum Weather Conditions 328

Missed Approach Point (MAP) 328

Non-precision Approach and Landing Operations 328

Notified 329

Obstacle Clearance Altitude/Height (OCA/H) 329

Obstacle Clearance Limit (OCL) 329

Precision Approach and Landing Operations 329

Positioning 329

Rule Distance 329

Rule Time 329

Runway Visual Range (RVR) 329

Reported RVR 329

Sector 329

Short Range flights 329

Specified 329

State Minima 329

System 330

Threshold Distance 330

Traffic Load 330

Visible Moisture 330

Visual Approach 330

Visual Contact Flight 330

Visual Reference 330

Index 331

By The Same Author 343

CARs in Plain English 343

The ANO in Plain English 343

Canadian Professional Pilot Studies 343

JAR Professional Pilot Studies 343

The Helicopter Pilot’s Handbook 343

The BIOS Companion 344

Introduction

This book has very little to do with

flying, but everything to do with

being a pilot—and the training and

information you need after you get

your licence, but don’t always get.

Certainly, no-one tells you that

Aviation runs on paperwork, and

that you need to be a bit of a lawyer

just to read the regulations. If you

work, or are going to work, for a

small charter company, or in the

corporate field, it’s mainly written

with you in mind, but those in larger

outfits (like airlines) should still

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benefit. The idea is to catch you, if

you’ve just qualified, at the same

point as when you left school, where

your education really begins. For

more experienced pilots, some of the

tips and tricks should make your job

that much easier. It will be especially

useful to Operations Staff (like

Flight Despatchers), who often have

to put themselves in a pilot’s shoes,

such as when inspecting Pleasure

Flying sites.

Smaller companies can’t afford to

spend too much time or money on

training, although naturally they

meet minimum requirements (with

the emphasis on minimum). Not

only that, they tend to be rather

short on staff as well, needing people

who can be quite versatile. You

could frequently find yourself

(especially in a helicopter company)

out in the field dealing directly with

customers and making decisions on

your Company's behalf. Would you

feel up to this? It's hard enough to

maintain your basic flying skills, let

alone become part of the

management. It's well known that

what customers think of your

Company depends not only on how

you fly the aircraft, but also on your

interaction with them. As an aviation

advert once said, there's nothing like

a curly sandwich to make your

passengers query your ability as a

pilot! They will expect you to know

the answers to all their questions,

which will range from how long you

can fly on full tanks to the type of

form Customs need for the goods

they wish to import. You might not

think it's fair, but you will rapidly

find you're not really a pilot at all—

you'll also be a combination of

Handling Agent, Freight Agent,

Manager and Salesman, amongst

other things. Mastering the aircraft is

only half the job.

2 Operational Flying

If you’re going to be in a remote

place with no supervision, or be a

corporate pilot, with no Commercial

experience to fall back on, but

nevertheless faced with operating an

aircraft on your own, this should be

the Ops Manual you don't have the

incentive to write for yourself—all

the information needed to run a

Flight Department professionally is

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inside, in plain English as far as

possible, which leads me to another

reason for writing it.

The content of operations manuals

is being standardised, at least within

Europe, under Joint Airworthiness

Requirements, and therefore being

written by committee, with very little

thought given to the people who

have to use them. Any attempt at

making the task easier for the target

audience is actually frowned upon,

so some sort of translation is

needed, especially as, in many areas,

no deviation from the text supplied

is allowed (especially Duty Hours),

which seems to have been written by

people whose native language is not

English. Of course, no selfrespecting pilot likes reading

manuals, but it’s part of the job and

should be as easy as possible.

To help things along, this book

loosely follows the JAR format for

Ops Manuals, containing all the stuff

the authorities wouldn’t let me put in

the manuals I wrote for several

companies, including humour—the

bits that are written in legalese can

be slotted straight into your own

manual when you get lumbered to

write one (where you can read it, just

change the wording to make it

incomprehensible). So, as well as

passing on a few tricks of the trade,

it’s a commentary on Operations

Manuals, or at least the sort of

common-sense one I would like to

have seen when I started. Put

another way, it’s how I think things

should be done.

Although the contents are largely

based on UK operating procedures,

the basics of professional flying are

the same everywhere, and the

differences will largely be in

terminology; for example, what the

CAA calls an Air Operator's Certificate

is sometimes called an Operating

Certificate in Canada. My point is that,

wherever you are, you won't be

wasting your time reading it, because

there's something for everyone

inside, especially as JARs are

“harmonised” with CARs (Canadian

Aviation Regulations) and based in part

on American procedures anyway.

One day, some of you will be Chief

Pilots, or at least have a hand in

running a company, however large.

That's why there are some parts of

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the book, such as Obtaining an Air

Operator's Certificate or Setting Up A

Company (which take you over to the

Management side of the fence) that

may not seem all that relevant at the

moment, but you should read them

anyway, as they will give you a

greater insight into what your

employer had to do to get into a

position to pay your salary, as well as

helping you understand how your

company works—maybe they will

help you with your own when the

time comes. You are definitely of

more value if you are commerciallyminded and can save money (which

doesn’t mean cutting corners).

Whatever parts you read (all of

them, I hope), this book should help

you find your way round when it all

seems Very Strange, and hopefully

Introduction 3

help you realise why certain things

happen the way they do.

Finally, being about as politically

correct as Attila the Hun, I make no

apologies for not distinguishing

between genders, because longwinded phrases would ruin the flow

of the text, so the pronoun "he" also

includes "she", as it does in most

legislation. Otherwise, the ladies fly

just as well as anyone else.

Good luck and best wishes!

Phil Croucher

PS – After reading one of the early

proofs, John Bulmer sent me this:

“Never allow your ego, self-confidence,

love of flying, pressure from a customer,

boss or co-pilot, or economic need to

interfere with your good judgement during

any stage of a flight. There is no amount

of pride, no thrill, pleasure, schedule or

job that is worth your licence or your life

and the lives of your passengers.

Complacency kills, and so does being a

cowboy.

That all may seem obvious and

unnecessary, but I learned it the hard

way during the foolishness of my youth. I

may not have listened to that advice then,

but if I had your book, who knows?”

What Sort Of Company Do

You Keep?

Wherever you end up, you will have

to get used to having no real

influence except when actually

flying. In other words, you may be

The Boss in your own office (the

cockpit), but it will seem like

everyone else is in charge of you

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otherwise, especially in smaller

companies, where you end up

amending publications, etc. as a

secondary duty; you're being paid

anyway, so when you're not flying

you end up in the pool of cheap

labour—no sitting at home when

you're not needed!

Companies differ in what they allow

you to get away with. In some, being

away from base with a problem may

mean ringing Ops before you make

any kind of a move. On the other

hand, you may be able to make

decisions on their behalf there and

then, which the Ops Manual (next

chapter) is supposed to help with.

Some airlines don't allow personal

items or conversation in the cockpit.

There are three types of flying,

Commercial Air Transport, Aerial Work

and Private. Being a professional

(well, potentially, anyway), you will

only be concerned with the first two.

· Commercial Air Transport exists

where payment (usually by a

passenger) is given for the use

of an aircraft, which in this

context means like a taxi, as

opposed to self-drive car hire.

You need to be aware that there

is considerable legal argument

as to when a flight comes under

Public Transport, or Commercial

Air Transport, to use the new

phrase, and you will find it

summarised in Legal Stuff

(Chapter 14). As it is so

complex, any further discussion

will be continued there. You

might find further subdivisions,

especially in Canada, into

Airline, Commuter and Air Taxi.

· Aerial Work covers other

situations where payment is still

given, but in specialised roles

not involving the usual

passenger or freight carrying,

4 Operational Flying

such as photography or flying

instruction, or any other

situation where you're getting

paid to fly.

· Private flying speaks for itself, its

most distinguishing feature

being that no payment exists,

other than by the pilot, for the

right to use the aircraft in the

first place, although this in itself

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could cause problems (you can

take money for some 'private

flights', but see Legal Stuff).

Within the above limits, the

companies you could get involved

with will also fall (broadly) into three

categories, with some blurring in

between, in the shape of Scheduled,

Charter or Corporate Flying.

Scheduled

“Scheduled Flying” is a legal

definition describing services that

run at predefined times with certain

conditions imposed on them, such

as being open to all classes of

passenger and the flights always

running, even though they may be

empty (many companies use this as a

form of sabotage, by sending

someone on a rival's flight just to

ensure the flight goes, otherwise they

might develop a "technical problem"

if there are no passengers, cancel it,

and save some money).

This would mean that, although

holiday flights and oilfield

helicopters do indeed move at

predefined times, they are not

subject to the other restrictions and

are not therefore "Scheduled", but as

the difference is mostly transparent,

I’ll treat them as the same. Let's just

say they are regular services.

Similarly, whilst airlines can provide

charter flights, the word commonly

covers the Air Taxi companies

within General Aviation, which itself

is a vague term—it usually means

anything below 5700 kg (12,500 lbs)

Max All-Up Weight, encompassing

Air Taxi, Flying Club and personally

owned aircraft, although the ICAO

definition excludes aerial work.

Scheduled Flying is said to be boring

(actually it is), but it does have the

advantage of being organised

anything up to 4 weeks in advance,

so you can at least have some sort of

planning in other areas of your life;

this is strictly enforced by the

authorities, and is covered more in

Chapter 7, Flight Time And Duty

Hours. Well, at least you know when

you're going, even if you're not sure

when you'll be coming back! The

only qualification to this depends on

the size of the Company.

As the size of the operation

decreases, and sometimes with it the

aptitude of the Operations

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Department, you will end up

wondering why they bother issuing

duty rosters at all. Very often, in this

sort of company, they are thrown

straight into the bin, as the crews

know they bear no resemblance to

what will actually happen.

Congratulations! You are probably in

a Charter Company (or a flying club)

disguised as an Airline, of which

there are several. That is, they might

have a lot of aircraft, but they will

only be capable of managing a few.

You will need a well-developed

sense of humour here, as the worst

aspects of both types of company

will come to the fore, namely little

time to yourself and less information

filtering down to the coal face, i.e.

you. You can tell you’re in one of

Introduction 5

these when your workload increases

to keep them out of trouble.

Charter

If scheduled flying is like bus

driving, then charter flying is a taxi

service, which means you are on call

twenty-five hours a day with

everything geared to an instant

response to the customer, leaving

you unable to plan very much. Don't

get me wrong; this can be fun with

plenty of variety and challenge in the

flying—but the downside is an Ops

Department that lets you do all the

work yourself, and being left hanging

around airports or muddy fields

while your passengers are away (with

missed meals, getting home late,

etc.). Charter Flying is also where

your other skills as Salesman and/or

Diplomat come into play, as you will

be very much involved with your

passengers, who are more than just

self-loading freight!

Thus, while you can move relatively

easily from Charter to Scheduled, it's

not so straightforward the other way

round. As an airline pilot, you rarely

see your passengers, and the flying is

very different. Charter (or Air Taxi)

is intensive, single-handed and

stressful work in the worst weather

(you can't fly over it) in aircraft with

the least accurate instruments. It can

be quite a culture shock for an airline

pilot, looking forward to pottering

around in a small aircraft until

retirement, to find there's twice as

much work as before and it's all

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happening at the same time.

As a pilot, therefore, you can have

two types of working day, depending

on the flying you do. In Scheduled,

there is relatively little to do before

departure as a lot is done by

others—for instance, ground staff

check-in and weigh the passengers

whilst engineers look at the aircraft,

although you still need a working

knowledge of what they do, because

the buck stops at the bottom.

A day flying charter, however, is a

different story. You could be

working at almost any time,

provided the Duty Hour limits are

not exceeded (again, see Chapter 7).

Departures are inevitably very early,

as businessmen need to be where

they're going at approximately the

start of the working day and return

at the end of it, so some days can be

very long.

As you're only allowed a certain

number of hours on duty, there's a

continual race to minimise them,

sometimes working like a one-armed

paper-hanger to keep up with

everything. The flight plan has to be

filed, the weather checked (as well as

the performance and the aircraft

itself), the passengers' coffee and

snacks must be prepared and they

must be properly briefed and looked

after (that's just the start).

Usually, the only thing that can

usefully be done the day before is to

place the fuel on board, and even

that can be difficult if the aircraft is

away somewhere else. The flight

itself is busy, too. As it's single-pilot,

you do the flying, navigation and

liaison with ATC. By contrast, the

time at your destination is very

quiet—after you've escorted your

passengers through security and seen

them safely on their way (the

terminal's naturally miles away from

the General Aviation park) you have

to walk back to tidy up, supervise the

refuelling, do the paperwork and

have your own coffee (if there's any

6 Operational Flying

left) while preparing for the return

journey.

If you're in a place you haven't been

to before, you could always see the

sights, but airfields are usually well

away from anything interesting, with

very few buses to get you there

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anyway. After a while, all you

remember will be the same shops, so

the general thing is to join the rest of

the "airport ghosts", or other pilots

in the same boat as you, and find a

quiet corner to read a book. You

may as well go to the terminal,

because you have to meet your

passengers there, but constant

announcements could drive you out

to the aircraft again.

However, while you may be on time

to meet them, your passengers will

very rarely be on time to meet you.

One trick that many pilots adopt is

to hand them a slip of paper

(keeping a copy!) stating when they

must be back, and giving a reason,

which may be weather or duty hours.

Then, if they’re not back in time,

they have very little recourse if you

either decide to go home without

them or stay the night. In Charter,

it's also a luxury to have more than

one day off in a row, and those you

do get are needed by law, or turn up

by surprise where you don't fly if

business is bad, even though you’ve

still gone into the office (the normal

routine is – if you don't fly, you're

not on duty, but common sense

dictates that, if you're in the office

doing something that is traceable,

such as doing exams with a date on

them, you'd better put down the

hours). Some companies don’t allow

any leave at all during Summer,

which is the height of the busy

season, and only a week at a stretch

if you do get it.

Corporate

Corporate flying, where you run the

Flight Department for a private

company, is similar to Charter, but

out of the Commercial Air

Transport sphere, so the

requirements (and paperwork!) are

not so strict (in Canada, however,

so-called Private Operators, for large

aeroplanes, are legislated for).

Having said that, most Flight

Departments are run to Commercial

Air Transport standards, or better,

and there is, naturally, no excuse for

letting your own standards slip. One

distinguishing feature is the way the

Corporate world regulates itself—

high performance intercontinental

aircraft follow essentially the same

rules as single-engined General