Ask The Pilot

[Daveller]

Do pilots have to remember and study the IAP and airport chart before flying there? Like photographic memory and/or remember numbers.

 

[Rabs97]

Do pilots have to remember and study the IAP and airport chart before flying there? Like photographic memory and/or remember numbers.

Don’t need to study every chart as the good folk at your airline (or the pilot themself if it’s a smaller company) supplies a set of charts (Jeppesen or DAPs) on each aircraft.

Once upon a time they’d be in several paper manuals so you got the experience of almost breaking your back carrying them, taking them out of the folder as needed for that flight, then placing them back into the folder in the correct order once the flight was completed. And then there was also the joy of manual amendments, where they’d mail you a big set amendments every month (usually just some minor grammar change) that you’d then have the excitement of laboriously taking out each old page from the manual and replacing it with a new one. When you got to a bigger airline there was usually a “Flight Library” department who’s sole job was to do the manual amendments and place them in each aircraft.

These days we all have iPads so amendments are done at a touch of a button and we can call up any chart for any airport on the route network instantly.

 

[jb747]

Do pilots have to remember and study the IAP and airport chart before flying there? Like photographic memory and/or remember numbers.

I'd have a very good read of all of the paperwork for any airport that I hadn't been to before. Beyond that though, you read it off as you need it. Never action them from memory (though you do end up remembering the details of places you go to often enough).