Starting my flight manual

[John Doecliff]

I found a general outline for a flight manual on the internet and am using it. Here's my table of contents page. Actually once you get going its really pretty easy. Of course I'm only at the beginning and it will get tougher as I get to the maintenance, emergency procedures etc. Once I get this written it wont be a big deal to change it to another multirotor by just changing the details because I already have the body of it written. I'm including pictures too.

This manual provides setup, operation, safety and maintenance information on the Tarot 680 multirotor and the associated equipment for safe, effective flight.


Table of contents

1. Basic description
   
   
2. Air frame
   
   
3. Electrical system
   
   
4. Flight control system
   
   
5. Power plant
   
   
6. Radio transmitter
   
   
7. FPV system
   
   
8. Payloads
   
   
9. Pre-flight set up
   
   
10. Pre-flight inspection
    
    
11. Operation
    
    
12. Emergency procedures
    
    
13. General safety precautions and warnings
    
    
14. Maintenance inspections
    

 

[John Doecliff]

So I am up to 19 pages and 3300 words. I still have my general warnings and precautions and the maintenance section left. It hasn't been too bad so far. I didn't skimp but I didn't go full bore and include every single little thing I could think of either. A couple pages are only 1/4 full and a couple of them are pictures but most of them are full pages.
On my emergency procedures I included procedures for

In flight fire
Loss of a motor
loss of radio contact
loss of visual line of sight due to unforeseen occurrence
Incident on the ground that no longer makes it safe for continued flight
in-flight interference from other aircraft or objects
I guess I need to do a fly away too

 

[Old Man]

I have a tendency to over write. You might be falling into the same trap. Most of the above have but three possible actions; RTH/RTB, land immediately, and terminate flight ops. The last one is sort of hopeless unless you could still send a motor stop command, which is most unlikely. Perhaps "initiate incident report" might be appropriate.

 

[John Doecliff]

Yep, That part only totaled about 1 and a half pages. If things go well I will never need to show my flight manual to another person, if things go badly and the FAA comes knocking I will have a pretty good manual and my bases covered, hopefully.

 

[John Doecliff]

My flight manual for the Tarot 680 is complete. 21 pages and 3700 words. I'm glad I kept up my momentum and pushed myself to get through this. Now that I have it I can use the body of it for my heavy lift although it will still be a lot of work to switch it over because of all the differences in the crafts.