Training and Safety Tip: Cover to cover

It sounds primitive, I know, yet encyclopedias served an important purpose. Each volume included a series of relatively short articles, covering pretty much every subject on the planet, arranged in alphabetical order. Before the internet, an encyclopedia was the way to learn a little about almost anything that you needed to know.

So, where am I going with this? Here’s the deal: Your training aircraft's pilot’s operating handbook, or POH, is not—I say NOT—a reference book.

It might look like one. Data tables help you look up how much runway you’ll need for taking off under various conditions. Charts help you calculate fuel burn at altitude. Graphs show your aircraft's power-off glide range. But don’t mistake this critical book for an encyclopedia. Your POH is a book to read cover to cover.

I get it. For many aircraft the POH is big. For all aircraft, it may be boring. But while it’s not an exciting read, it’s good information. In fact, better than good. The information set forth in your POH is critical to you as a pilot. Simply put, the better you understand the machine under your command—what it can do, what it can’t do, how it works—the better, and safer, you will be as a pilot.

A typical POH is organized in a standard way, which allows the POH to be used as a reference, but that doesn’t make it a reference book. That’s an important distinction. While the encyclopedia-like organization makes it easy to find and confirm a fact you’ve already read, the real reason for presenting information about different aircraft in the same order is to make it easier for pilots to transition to other aircraft and understand the operational differences between them, as rare is the pilot who only flies one make and model aircraft.

So, if you’ve been treating your POH like an encyclopedia, fess-up, pour a cup (or maybe more) of coffee, sit down, open to page one of section one, and begin reading.