In order to improve management practices and remain competitive in the aviation industry, Mustique Airways continuously seeks new solutions. Therefore, we have chosen to implement EFBs, or Electronic Flight Bags, in our operation.
This true innovation, already adopted by many European airlines, significantly reduces the pilot workload in the cockpit. The project took over a year to implement, and we are now starting the assessment phase for the next six months. This article describes its features and utility in more detail.
What is it about?
Before anything else, it is customary to introduce the tools mentioned. Electronic Flight Bag is a specialized tablet with specific applications and functionalities for the aviation industry. Its main advantage is to replace paper-based aircraft/company manuals and flight envelopes. In addition, it offers a broad range of additional tools that we will detail below.
The use of tablets is regulated by the civil aviation of the relevant country. To obtain this authorization, we had to conduct a proactive risk analysis under our safety management system and write the appropriate amendments in the company’s operations manuals. Subsequently, we developed a pilot training program for all system characteristics.
The features of the EFB
The device is convenient on several levels, as in fact, it is possible to have access to applications in meteorology, cartography, file storage and flight indications. You may have noticed it before takeoff, pilots fill in documents called “flight records”. This includes passenger information, flight parameters, weather, airport information, weight and center of gravity calculations, and fuel. This is now possible on “eFlight” which automatically calculates data and stores it on a server. The JeppFD app collects flight data, including route and approach procedures. The “Webmanuals” software stores data from mandatory operating manuals onboard. Regarding our safety management system, we use the “SMSProHazard report” which allows us to log any incident in our database.
