The Pilot's Operating Handbook and Airplane Flight Manual

Every certified airplane comes with a book that says what it may and may not do. In its legal form this is the airplane flight manual (AFM), approved by the certifying authority with the type and binding on every pilot who flies it. Light airplanes usually carry it inside a larger pilot's operating handbook (POH), arranged in a standard order, so that a pilot moving from a Cessna to a Piper finds the stall speeds, the engine fire checklist and the loading graph in the same place.

ICAO Annex 8 requires each aircraft to have a flight manual, or equivalent documents, stating its approved limitations, and national rules make those limitations law for the pilot. Knowing which parts of the book are approved, which are advice and which pages apply to the airplane actually being flown is examined from the PPL onward. Airline crews work mostly from the FCOM, QRH and operations manual, but those rest on the AFM, as described in operations manual and flight crew documentation.

AFM and POH: what each is

The FAA describes the AFM as an approved document holding the operating limitations, operating procedures and performance information needed to operate the airplane at the level of safety set by its certification basis. The certification codes list its content. For small airplanes, 14 CFR 23.2620 requires operating limitations, operating procedures, performance information, loading information and any other information necessary for safe operation because of its design, operating or handling characteristics. For transport airplanes, 14 CFR 25.1581 to 25.1587 require the same in more detail. EASA's codes, CS-23 since its 2017 rewrite and CS-25, contain matching requirements.

An AFM belongs to one airplane. The FAA's Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge describes it as specific to a make and model, usually by serial number: the title page carries the serial number and registration, and the equipment list and weight and balance data are that airframe's own. An owner's or information manual gives general information on the model; it is not specific to one airplane, not FAA approved and not kept current, and it cannot replace the AFM.

The POH format comes from the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA), whose Specification No. 1 standardizes handbooks for airplanes of 12,500 lb maximum takeoff weight or less. In most modern light airplanes the handbook and the approved manual are one book; the handbook of the Cessna 172S, for example, is titled Pilot's Operating Handbook and FAA Approved Airplane Flight Manual. Under 14 CFR 21.5, even an airplane of a type certificated without a flight manual must be delivered with a current approved AFM if it had no flight time before 1 March 1979. Many older light airplanes were certified without one, and for them 14 CFR 91.9 accepts approved manual material, markings and placards, or any combination of them.

Transport airplanes keep the AFM as a separate approved document, and crews fly from the manufacturer's FCOM and QRH, written from it. Boeing's 737 FCOM, for example, marks which items in its limitations chapter are AFM limitations and which are operational information. Each authority approves its own AFM and may add limitations of its own: at the 737 MAX's return to service, EASA's simulator assessment of air data failures led it to write a prohibition of RNP AR operations into its AFM.

The standard sections

A GAMA-format handbook has nine sections, and manufacturers may add a tenth on safety information:

Not every section is approved. Under the current Part 23, for low-speed airplanes of certification levels 1 and 2 (up to six passenger seats) only the portion containing the operating limitations must be FAA approved; for high-speed airplanes and for levels 3 and 4, the procedures, performance and loading information must be approved as well. The older Part 23 had a similar concession for piston airplanes of 6,000 lb or less, which needed only their limitations approved and clearly set apart. For transport airplanes, 25.1581 requires the limitations, procedures and performance to be approved and "segregated, identified, and clearly distinguished from each unapproved part" of the manual. The systems descriptions and servicing sections are normally unapproved information.

Limitations and approved material

The limitations section contains only the limitations required by regulation or needed for the safe operation of the airplane, its engine, systems and equipment. It covers airspeeds; powerplant limits such as maximum rpm and temperatures; weight and center of gravity limits; flight limits, listing the approved maneuvers with their entry speeds and load factors and the prohibited ones, such as spins in a normal category airplane; the kinds of operation approved, such as day or night VFR, IFR or flight in icing; and the required placards.

That section is law. Under 14 CFR 91.9, no one may operate a civil aircraft without complying with the operating limitations in its approved flight manual, markings and placards, or those prescribed by the authority of the country of registry. Markings carry limitations into the cockpit: on a light airplane's airspeed indicator the white arc runs from VS0 to VFE, the green arc from VS1 to VNO, the yellow arc from VNO to VNE, and a red line marks VNE (see airspeed indicator). Placards are limitations in their own right: a baggage compartment placard of 20 kg limits that compartment even when the total mass and center of gravity would allow more.

Some limits depend on the loading. A trainer certified in both the normal and utility categories may be spun only when its flight manual approves spins and it is loaded inside the utility envelope, which usually means less mass, front seats only and a narrower center of gravity range (aircraft categories). Transport manuals add type-wide limits: the 737 NG's maximum operating altitude of 41,000 ft pressure altitude and its maximum takeoff and landing altitude of 8,400 ft are AFM limitations. Since an amendment of 2010 prompted by the American Airlines Flight 587 accident, 14 CFR 25.1583 also requires a statement that full control inputs belong below VA and that rapid alternating inputs, or full inputs on more than one axis at once, may cause structural failure at any speed.

Much of the handbook is information rather than limitation. The maximum demonstrated crosswind is the strongest crosswind met during certification, at least 0.2 VS0 at 90° for a light airplane; it limits only if the manufacturer places it in the limitations section. The A320's demonstrated 38 kt, gusts included, is not an AFM limitation either. A demonstrated capability is likewise no approval: the 737-8 data sheet records takeoffs and landings demonstrated with 15 kt of tailwind, but states that this is no operational approval for more than 10 kt.

Emergency and normal procedures

Sections 3 and 4 open with checklists for use in the cockpit and follow them with amplified procedures, which explain each step and often contain detail the checklist leaves out. The normal procedures section begins with the speeds for normal operation, such as rotation, best angle and best rate of climb and approach speeds.

The manual's procedure governs where it differs from generic teaching. Spin recovery in a light airplane follows the flight manual; the generic sequence of power to idle, ailerons neutral, opposite rudder and elevator forward applies only where the manual says nothing else (spins and spiral dives). Takeoff with frost, ice or snow adhering to the wings is permitted only if the AFM specifically allows it. Some procedures reach the manual after service experience: after the 1994 Roselawn accident, FAA airworthiness directives gave many airplanes with pneumatic de-icing boots flight manual limitations and procedures for recognizing severe icing and leaving it.

Performance and weight and balance

Section 5 gives the data the certification rules require and any other data the manufacturer judges useful, from airspeed conversion tables and stall speeds in each configuration to takeoff, climb, cruise and landing tables. The figures were obtained with a new airplane, flown by test pilots with the technique stated in the chart notes, and contain no safety margin. The notes are part of the data: a correction such as "decrease distances 10 percent for each 9 knots of headwind" must be applied as written. Before every flight, 14 CFR 91.103 requires the pilot to know the runway lengths at the airports of intended use and the AFM takeoff and landing distance data. European commercial rules factor the same data: for a performance class B airplane with no stopway or clearway, the gross AFM takeoff distance multiplied by 1.25 must not exceed the takeoff run available, and on a dry runway the AFM landing distance must fit within 70 % of the landing distance available (light aircraft performance charts).

Section 6 holds the individual airplane's empty weight and center of gravity, its equipment list and the loading data, often with a loading graph and an envelope chart. GAMA definitions apply: basic empty weight includes unusable fuel, full engine oil and the optional equipment installed. When equipment is added or removed, the new empty weight and center of gravity are computed and recorded, and the record in Section 6 must be the current one (light aircraft weight and balance). Transport airplanes have the same principle on a larger scale: the type certificate data sheet gives the highest certified masses, and the AFM states the weight variant an individual aircraft holds, which may be lower.

Supplements and revisions

Section 9 holds the supplements for optional systems and equipment, such as autopilots, navigation systems or air conditioning. The airplane manufacturer or the equipment maker may supply them. Equipment installed after delivery, often under a supplemental type certificate (STC), comes with an approved AFM supplement, which can add limitations, emergency and normal procedures and performance changes. A supplement applies only when its equipment is installed, so each airplane's Section 9 must match what is actually fitted. Supplements may be stricter than general guidance: many IFR GPS supplements require a current navigation database for all IFR use, while the AIM allows an expired one en route and in terminal areas if waypoints are checked against current charts.

Section 91.9 asks for a current manual. Manufacturers issue revisions, and airworthiness directives can mandate changes to the limitations or procedures; each must be inserted for the book to stay current. A handbook for another serial number, or one missing its latest revision, may show the wrong speeds, weights or procedures for the airplane on the ramp.

Documents carried

In the United States, 91.9 requires a current approved AFM in any airplane for which 21.5 requires one; other aircraft must carry an approved AFM, approved manual material, markings and placards, or a combination. Pilots remember the documents with the mnemonic ARROW, in which O stands for the operating limitations and W for the weight and balance data, both required by 91.9 (aircraft registration and documents). Part 121 carriers carry the approved AFM, or their own manual where it contains the flight manual information clearly identified.

Under EASA rules, NCO.GEN.135 lists the flight manual among the documents carried on non-commercial flights in other-than-complex aircraft, and CAT.GEN.MPA.180 requires the AFM, or equivalent documents, on every commercial air transport flight. Its guidance explains that the equivalent documents are those containing the information needed to operate the aircraft within the terms of its certificate of airworthiness, unless that information is already in the parts of the operations manual carried on board.

Library articles are written for study and exam preparation. They do not replace your aircraft's approved documentation, your operator's procedures or the regulations themselves.