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Subject:RE: Thank God for good documentation From:jwaddell <jwaddell -at- micron -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Mon, 28 Apr 2003 08:40:56 -0600
These documents are like a "style guide" to the cockpit. As a Black Hawk helicopter pilot (Idaho Army National Guard), I have a Pocket SOP and an in-flight guide that extract information from all sorts of other manuals and condense it down to what we need in its simplest form. The information ranges from checklists for secure radios to briefing formats for Combat Search and Rescue operations with other agencies. We even put in members phone numbers and email addresses. The document is printed on letter size in a booklet form so that it is easy to for us to print ourselves. We update it semi-annually. It fits on a kneeboard or in a flight suit pocket. I never leave home with out it. The unit members went nuts when I indexed it.
This is a valuable document that no other agency or provider could have produced for us. Pilots and crewmembers have a lot of memorized knowledge, but things that are not done with regularity get forgotten. This document also works to standardize operations as crews change personnel or new people come to the unit.
It is very similar to the FrameMaker and Template guide that I keep here at work. The difference with this one is that I don't get a "yessir" here at work.
John
--
Andrew wrote: "A prime example of how real-world experience with the
subject matter is overwhelmingly more important than any level of process,
method, or design. When docs don't meet the needs of users, they will
ignore them and begin building their own. And those docs are usually
crude, unattractive, and lacking in every category on an STC evaluation
form - yet they are of immense value to the readers."
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