Digital document developer Web Manuals (Booth N115) said that it has saved business aviation customers 70 percent of the typical time required to update their manuals in 2018 or approximately 2,400 hours per year.

On average, business jet operators can have up to 30 operations and other manuals in their libraries and make up to 75 revisions per year, each taking around 40 hours to complete. Using Web Manuals’ web-based application, updating and revising a manual customarily takes no more than a day, saving each customer approximately 32 hours per revision compared to using the manual cut-and-paste method with a word processing program, the company said. 

Web Manuals has seen its aviation business surge over the last year, particularly in Europe, said Web Manuals CEO Martin Lidgard, where 120 of the company’s 215 customers are based. Germany-based BMW group is among Web Manuals’ long-standing customers. Paul Stober, chief pilot and flight operations manager for BMW, said his company has been using Web Manuals since 2015. “Since then, we have noticed significant time savings when it comes to updating and publishing our manuals," he said. "The speed of amendments to our documentation has also improved safety within the company."

“Our EU [European Union] customers have more than doubled in the last two years," said Lidgard. "Just last year we grew our customer base there by 65 percent and the trend is continuing this year. Business aviation is the fastest-growing segment that we have. New EASA regulations are hitting business aviation hard and are particularly challenging for small and charter operators to manage. Web Manuals allows them to stay on top of regulatory changes, make updates, and avoid problematic mistakes while working with the authorities.” 

Beyond the advantage of saving time, Lidgard said Web Manuals improves safety and compliance. “With Web Manuals, a company becomes more agile. A third party or government agency can access a company’s manual, review documents, and provide feedback before the manual is published.” 

Lidgard said customers can integrate Web Manuals with flight and maintenance logs to create a seamless safety management system with partner software packages. “It allows the customer to integrate the entire audit filing into Web Manuals. You can pull out all the cross-references to the actual manual document and the regulation in the compliance database. Then you just populate audits with this information. A customer will save an enormous amount of time doing this, and it completely eliminates the possibility for a mistake when facing an auditor.”

Web Manuals works with partners including Advanced Safety and Quality Solutions (ASQS) and AeroEx to provide this kind of content and capabilities. With the latter, Web Manuals is working to provide customers an integrated solution to the upcoming EASA electronic flight bag regulations set for European operators. 

Additionally, Web Manuals provides at least two new software releases annually with updates almost every month. A major new Web Manuals 2.0 version is scheduled to be released by year-end. Lidgard said version 2.0 will create a user experience the company has envisioned since 2012. “It’s web technology that allows us to create the ultimate easy user experience without any training,” he said.