UK Operations Manual - Help.

Randersen · Oct 10, 2015

A little help needed if anyone has time. I have signed up to a course to get my commercial licence to fly my Inspire 1 in the UK. I need to create an "Operations Manual". Has anyone written one before, or have a link to what one looks like? Any help at all would be appreciated as I'm feeling a little out of my depth on this one. Thanks in advance.

The Editor · Oct 10, 2015

Randersen said:
A little help needed if anyone has time. I have signed up to a course to get my commercial licence to fly my Inspire 1 in the UK. I need to create an "Operations Manual". Has anyone written one before, or have a link to what one looks like? Any help at all would be appreciated as I'm feeling a little out of my depth on this one. Thanks in advance.

Hi and welcome to Inspire Pilots.

Many of us on here have CAA approval and hold PFAW so have gone through the same thing. I wouldn't worry too much as your NQE will take you through the process of what must be included in your ops manual and most will give you a template of the headings that must be included.
The important thing is it must be YOUR document and contain your own working practices, checklists and emergency procedures as well as operational limitations (maximum working ceiling, Take off mass etc etc). You will cover all these thing and a lot more during your ground schooling and after you have completed that and sat your exam you will have a lot more confidence in being able to write your own manual.
Nearly all PFAW holders will guard the contents of their manual like Fort Knox since it is something that they have worked on and authored from scratch. The important thing is YOU must understand why certain things and working procedures are in there rather than plagiarise someone else's (I'm not suggesting you would do that).
For most people writing a 50 or 60 page ops manual is the most daunting in working towards PFAW but once you have completed your Groundschool, things will become much clearer

Then all you have to do is pass your flight assessment!
Good luck.

Randersen · Oct 10, 2015

The Editor said:
Hi and welcome to Inspire Pilots.

Many of us on here have CAA approval and hold PFAW so have gone through the same thing. I wouldn't worry too much as your NQE will take you through the process of what must be included in your ops manual and most will give you a template of the headings that must be included.
The important thing is it must be YOUR document and contain your own working practices, checklists and emergency procedures as well as operational limitations (maximum working ceiling, Take off mass etc etc). You will cover all these thing and a lot more during your ground schooling and after you have completed that and sat your exam you will have a lot more confidence in being able to write your own manual.
Nearly all PFAW holders will guard the contents of their manual like Fort Knox since it is something that they have worked on and authored from scratch. The important thing is YOU must understand why certain things and working procedures are in there rather than plagiarise someone else's (I'm not suggesting you would do that).
For most people writing a 50 or 60 page ops manual is the most daunting in working towards PFAW but once you have completed your Groundschool, things will become much clearer
Then all you have to do is pass your flight assessment!
Good luck.

Thanks loads for the quick reply, appreciate it. I didn't realise that they were such a closely guarded secret, just thought that it would be very useful to see the type of things that other inspire pilots had in theirs to know what sort of things the examiners are looking for or that is particular to the inspire, as I have no idea at the moment, and downloading the CAP 722 didn't make it seem any easier ;-) I look forward to my course, but just wanted to try and get a head start, so any tips or pearls of wisdom from the experienced pilots would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again.

The Editor · Oct 10, 2015

Randersen said:
Thanks loads for the quick reply, appreciate it. I didn't realise that they were such a closely guarded secret, just thought that it would be very useful to see the type of things that other inspire pilots had in theirs to know what sort of things the examiners are looking for or that is particular to the inspire, as I have no idea at the moment, and downloading the CAP 722 didn't make it seem any easier ;-) I look forward to my course, but just wanted to try and get a head start, so any tips or pearls of wisdom from the experienced pilots would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again.

We could show you our ops manuals but we would have to kill you afterwards.

In all honesty trying to get to grips with the ops manual before you do your groundschool will be a bit tough since you will need to cover the subjects within your course to fully understand the content.
What your NQE should give you is a template (depending on what they have agreed with the CAA) which will give sections and headings that must be covered in your manual for submission.
Your route to PFAW will basically be: