777-200LR Flight Test Journal: Archives

16 November 2005

Writing the instructions

Rebecca Kolbet, 777 Airplane Flight Manual editor

Every Boeing airplane is delivered to customers with detailed documentation to help guide its safe operations and maintenance. I collect and edit the data that the FAA requires for the Airplane Flight Manual, a document whose content is specified by law and is geared toward safety. The manual gets much of its data from the airplane's flight tests and is usually one of the final documents the FAA reviews and approves before airplane certification.

The manual is divided into four sections; section one covers what are called "limitations," and is the most important. Limitations tell the pilots what the operational limits are for the airplane, like the maximum operational weights, airspeed limits, engine limits, fuel limits and so on. Limitations are basically the airplane's envelope.

Sections two and three cover normal and non-normal procedures for the airplanes operation. Non-normal procedures would include operational conditions, like ditching the airplane, cargo or engine fires, smoke and severe engine damage or separation. Normal procedures are for items like the autopilot flight director, flight management computing system, flight deck communications and so on.

Sections two and three have a limited amount of description for each procedure. The detailed information is in the Operations Manual, which is also on the airplane. The difference between the flight and the operations manual is in the level of detail. The procedures in the flight manual are not complete and are unique to each airplane model; they are what, for safety reasons, the FAA has deemed the flight crews should know. These same procedures with a lot of detail are contained in the operations manual.

Section four contains the airplane's performance data. In older manuals, the performance data included a lot of paper charts. Newer versions are on data diskettes or downloadable from the Web. The performance data covers takeoff, landing, runway lengths, altitudes, temperatures and so on.

When we start putting together the flight manual, we follow the same format we've used in the past. It's basically the four sections that I described before. First, we put together the basic information, using an existing flight manual that is similar in design. The engineering groups for the different airplane systems send us their information generally obtained during flight test. So the 'weights' group will send us weight information, 'fuels' sends us data on fuel quantities and usage, 'aerodynamics' sends the performance data, and so on. This data is considered major since it is model specific. Sometimes I have to do a little encouraging. I'll send off e-mails to everybody and ask, "Come on...Where's my data?"

The manual is a critical part of getting the airplane certified and is one of the last things to get done. In fact, those two things generally happen at the same time. The FAA says we agree with all your documentation; we looked at the flight manual and everything is fine. Formal type certification usually takes place the same day or the day after the flight manual is approved.

Updating and revising the flight manuals is a never-ending process. A lot of different activities can trigger the need for a revision, such as a customer requested change to an airplane configuration or updated software on airplane systems. Also, an FAA mandated revision (Airworthiness Directive) will go in all affected flight manuals. We'll change one manual first, get the FAA's approval and then add it to all the other manuals at one time.

Obviously, you have to be detail-oriented to do this job, but the system makes it pretty straightforward. It keeps me busy, which is one reason why I like it.