Page 25 - Index

Paperless—The First Step the training aspect of the initial equa- too bright or too dim, and often the
To better understand the evolution and tion. It takes time and practice to fully reflection of the outside light on the
impact of technology on our work, let’s understand the intricacies of computer screen makes it difficult to use the
start with those early days. The arrival systems, especially mobile systems. It isn’t mobile device.
of digital versions didn’t come without a and never will be innate. • User Xperience (uX) is important.
hitch. How do you digitize tons and tons Simple questions to ask ourselves in- Is the hardware easy to use? Can
of documents into electronic versions and clude how do we display two PDF sheets you access what you need within
also in what format? simultaneously and how do we switch two clicks? Often, uX is neglected
Most organizations have turned to the from one app to the other without losing compared to platform realization
increasingly popular Adobe PDF. PDF the page or information we want to keep. for reasons of speed and production
stands for “portable document format.” Training helps us to understand our efficiency. App design should be intu-
This format is primarily used for saving electronic instruments just as training itive, but producing a good interface
files that can’t be modified but still need helps us to better identify an emergency takes skill and effort. Sometimes it’s
to be easily shared and printed. Today, in flight. easier to program software than to
almost everyone has a version of Adobe make it usable. But good design and
Reader or another compatible program Paperless—The Next Step programming brings great benefits
on their computer, tablet, or mobile de- The second phase of the evolution of the to aviation safety and significantly
vice that can read a PDF file. paperless environment has brought us increases situational awareness and
Everything, absolutely everything, had some great improvements and speed of decision-making.
to go through it, if we were to accomplish access. Let’s take a look at a few examples.
the ultimate goal of zero paper on board. • Fully autonomous digital information
First step, company operations manuals, continues to evolve. We’ve gone from Advantages of Digital Data Delivery
aircraft operations manuals, standard op- raster graphics to vector graphics, Methods
erations manuals, flight plans, and instru- with the ability to enlarge the image There are many advantages to digital
ment approach and navigation charts— without losing too much quality. If delivery of data.
all this in PDF format. The second step is you have trouble seeing the name of • Total number of publications and data
to find a work instrument that is powerful the road correctly, just enlarge the available at your fingertips. As I men-
enough to reproduce all these PDF imag- image and you’re done. tioned before, everything is available
es when required and in no time. Let’s not at your fingertips. If you need to see
forget to consider the computer security • The content displayed depends on this or that, you press and there it
of the material and also the protection of your selection. You see only what is. But you have to prepare yourself
the data—a titanic task. you’ve selected so unwanted infor- in advance. Good organization will
But again, the advantages outweigh mation can be out of sight at your ensure that you have greater flexibili-
the disadvantages by far. Remember the discretion. ty and ease.
17 kilos? The ability to have everything at • There are complete annotation capa-
hand is fantastic and very useful. No more bilities in the visualized content. You • Current status of amendments search
fumbling around in the aircraft or your can annotate only what you need. For functions. These updates are done
flight bag to find the right information. example, you annotate closed con- either automatically or in a very
You just have to turn on your tablet and struction lanes directly on the app to simple way. A last amendment has
click on the desired app to show the PDF give you an overall view of what the just appeared, and you download it
document. It seems very simple, but to place will look like when you arrive. and here it is. However, the danger
say that is an exaggeration. Ah, the pa- You’re done and don’t need this info here is exactly the ease of issuing too
perless office. Remember that buzzword anymore—zap it and delete it without many updates. We’ve experienced the
that never seems to go away completely, damaging the master file. same thing at home where the flow of
even though history has proven that the information was much too great and
use of computers has so far only led to an • You can manipulate the layout to too fast.
increase in paper use? The challenge is to suit the circumstances. You plot your • Better control of documentation by the
have an excellent and robust classifica- route from the runway, from the taxi- company, which controls its distri-
tion system that will help pilots find the way to your maintenance hangar. You bution and updates. Once again, the
required information easily and at the can enlarge the image and focus only planning of updates is necessary to
right time. on what’s relevant to you without ensure that pilots aren’t overloaded/
The world of mobile technology may worrying about the rest of the airport. overwhelmed with information and
seem very easy to the younger genera- • You can adjust lighting at night. No amendments because information
tion, but to the older generation it isn’t need for a flashlight or map light overload will discourage the of these
necessarily as easy. Therefore, we often anymore. If it’s too bright, dim it documents, e.g., e-mails.
overestimate the intuitiveness of the down, not bright enough, bring it
instrument, in this case the tablet, and up. But also, it could be too bright at • Digital Flight Plan with Annotation
wrongly believe that pilots will easily find night and not bright enough during Capabilities. Being able to access
their way around. In fact, companies later the day. The lighting of mobile devic- your flight plan well in advance of
realized that they may have neglected es has always been a problem, either your arrival at the aircraft helps with

October-December 2021 ISASI Forum • 25