Narrative:

During pre-flight of aircraft and cockpit; the flight crew noticed that the captain's ship set was out of date. It was the only bag that was out of date. Operations staff notified of issue. Within 15 minutes of departure a flight operations staff member finally arrived at aircraft with a message from the flight duty manager that allows continued operation with an out of date ship set. The explanation from the staffer included the revelation that very recently the vendor that provides up dated publications for the ship set's had been fired and that there were no other options/solution to the problem besides a deferral or cancellation; as there were no more ship sets at the domicile/pilot base. With all this information at his disposal; the captain reluctantly accepted the aircraft; commenting that the crew would have to check the captain's approach plate dates with first officer set during flight. During the flight it was discovered (relief first officer after crew swap) that the recent change also included a change to the quick reference guide; and that the new card would come from the captain's ship set (the one that was out of date). Upon closer inspection; the quick reference guide was noted to be expired as it referenced the old chapters in the 777 flight manual (FM). In the rush to get the flight out on time; it appears that dispatch; the duty manager; and flight operations had not done due diligence in providing all the relevant material to the cockpit crew on the ramifications of the deferral option being offered to the captain. The flight crew members with responsibility to check the quick reference guide also failed to notice the old quick reference guide with old references was still in place. Comments on issue included reference to large volume of recent changes to FM and fom. In the opinion of 'the reporter' it also included an apparent lack of enthusiasm from one member to embrace transitional changes required in the operation. Relief first officer contacted dispatch and duty manager by satcom to explain situation and offer remedy of using quick reference guide from first officer's FM until a replacement was procured at next opportunity. A request for notification to the prospective outbound captain by dispatch; as well as notes left in quick reference guide area and first officer FM pages by inbound crew to mitigate issue during subsequent operation. Volume of change in operating procedures at the air carrier's subsidiary; without requisite training historically completed by the airline flight crews at the training facility before implementation of changes was certainly a contributing factor in the opinion of the flight crew during post-flight debrief of the crew by the captain.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A B777 Crew discovered during preflight that the Captain's aircraft manuals were out of date but received authorization to depart and during flight the quick reference guide was found to be out of date also.

Narrative: During pre-flight of aircraft and cockpit; the flight crew noticed that the Captain's Ship Set was out of date. It was the only bag that was out of date. Operations staff notified of issue. Within 15 minutes of departure a flight operations staff member finally arrived at aircraft with a message from the Flight Duty Manager that allows continued operation with an out of date Ship Set. The explanation from the staffer included the revelation that very recently the vendor that provides up dated publications for the Ship Set's had been fired and that there were no other options/solution to the problem besides a deferral or cancellation; as there were no more Ship Sets at the domicile/pilot base. With all this information at his disposal; the Captain reluctantly accepted the aircraft; commenting that the crew would have to check the Captain's approach plate dates with First Officer set during flight. During the flight it was discovered (relief First Officer after crew swap) that the recent change also included a change to the quick reference guide; and that the new card would come from the Captain's Ship Set (the one that was out of date). Upon closer inspection; the quick reference guide was noted to be expired as it referenced the old chapters in the 777 Flight Manual (FM). In the rush to get the flight out on time; it appears that Dispatch; the Duty Manager; and Flight Operations had not done due diligence in providing all the relevant material to the cockpit crew on the ramifications of the deferral option being offered to the Captain. The flight crew members with responsibility to check the quick reference guide also failed to notice the old quick reference guide with old references was still in place. Comments on issue included reference to large volume of recent changes to FM and FOM. In the opinion of 'the reporter' it also included an apparent lack of enthusiasm from one member to embrace transitional changes required in the operation. Relief First Officer contacted Dispatch and Duty Manager by SATCOM to explain situation and offer remedy of using quick reference guide from First Officer's FM until a replacement was procured at next opportunity. A request for notification to the prospective outbound Captain by Dispatch; as well as notes left in quick reference guide area and First Officer FM pages by inbound crew to mitigate issue during subsequent operation. Volume of change in operating procedures at the Air Carrier's subsidiary; without requisite training historically completed by the Airline flight crews at the training facility before implementation of changes was certainly a contributing factor in the opinion of the flight crew during post-flight debrief of the crew by the Captain.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.