What is a NATOPS pocket checklist?

A NATOPS pocket checklist, usually called the PCL, is the abbreviated checklist a naval aircrew member carries in the cockpit. The Naval Air Training and Operating Procedures Standardization (NATOPS) program defines it in CNAF M-3710.7, the NATOPS General Flight and Operating Instructions Manual dated February 7, 2025, as an excerpt of selected sections of the aircraft's NATOPS flight manual, designed for use while airborne. Three rules in that manual govern the PCL: everything in it must be derived from the flight manual or another approved source, a current copy must be carried on every flight, and changes reach it through the same interim change process that updates the manual. This page sets out those rules, the way the PCL relates to the full flight manual, how student aviators use it, and what the general manual says about electronic versions. Readers who want the program as a whole can start with what NATOPS is.

What a NATOPS pocket checklist contains

Paragraph 2.3.2 of CNAF M-3710.7 lists the NATOPS products for every aircraft type, model, and series. Item 5 defines NATOPS Checklists as excerpts, often in abbreviated form, of selected sections of the NATOPS Flight Manual (NFM) or a supplement, designed for easy accessibility for use while airborne. The paragraph names three checklist products: the Pocket Checklist (PCL), the Functional Checkflight Checklist (FCFCL), and the Card Checklist (CCL). The PCL is the one carried on ordinary flights.

The general manual does not list the sections a PCL must extract; that is set by the ACO NATOPS Style Guide, which paragraph 1.3.8 says applies to all paper and electronic NATOPS flight manuals, General Series manuals, and checklist publications, and which is posted on the Airworthiness website. A training document shows the practice for one aircraft. The T-6A Checklist Study Guide, issued by Training Squadron TEN as TRARONTENNOTE 3710 in May 2022 and hosted by the Chief of Naval Air Training (CNATRA), says the checklists in the guide were taken from Section II of the T-6A NATOPS Flight Manual, the normal procedures section, and that instructions and communication phrases for emergency procedures are found in the T-6A NATOPS Flight Manual and two flight training instructions. The guide's checklists are extracts of the manual's normal procedures, not new procedures.

The definition has been stable. The 2009 predecessor of the general manual, OPNAVINST 3710.7U, hosted by Headquarters Marine Corps Aviation, defined NATOPS Checklists in the same words and named the same three products, and the May 5, 2016 edition of CNAF M-3710.7 repeats them. A reader who meets the terms PCL, FCFCL, and CCL in a manual from any of these years is reading the same three products. Paragraph 2.3.2 of the 2025 manual abbreviates Pocket Checklist as PCL, and the F-35 Flight Manual Product Set, described later on this page, reuses the abbreviation for its Pilot's Checklist.

How the PCL relates to the NATOPS flight manual

The flight manual is the source and the checklist is derived from it. Paragraph 2.3.2 defines the NFM as a manual for a specific aircraft model containing standardized ground and flight operating procedures, training requirements, aircraft limitations, and technical data necessary for safe and effective operation. Supplements may be issued for specific sections, such as a performance supplement, and are valid only with the NFM. The checklist sits one step further down: an excerpt of the NFM or a supplement.

The rule that controls the content is the last sentence of item 5: information contained in a NATOPS checklist shall be derived from the NFM, other approved NATOPS, or NATIP, the Naval Aviation Technical Information Product. A checklist cannot introduce a procedure, a limit, or a step that the manual does not hold. The 2016 edition uses the same words, and the 2009 instruction said checklist information shall be derived from the NFM or other approved NATOPS "or related source (e.g., NATIP)." The 2025 wording drops the qualifier and names NATIP outright as one of the three permitted sources.

Two more paragraphs frame the relationship. Paragraph 2.3.3.3 says only a Promulgated NATOPS product, one that carries a Letter of Promulgation, is an approved permanent flight clearance for the aircraft. Paragraph 2.2.2 gives the NATOPS Products Administrator, the NAVAIR Airworthiness and CYBERSAFE Office (ACO), the duty of maintaining the documents for the standardized content and formatting of NATOPS manuals, NATOPS flight manuals, "and associated checklists." The same office that controls the manual controls the checklist format.

Which governs if the checklist and the manual differ

Searchers ask this often, and the honest answer is that CNAF M-3710.7 does not contain a paragraph that says the manual prevails over the checklist. What it contains is a derivation rule and an obligation. Because paragraph 2.3.2 requires every item in a checklist to be derived from the flight manual or another approved NATOPS, a checklist that differs from its manual is, by definition, in error or behind a change. Paragraph 2.5 then says any NATOPS product user who notes a deficiency or an error is obligated to submit a change recommendation, and paragraph 1.1.2 names the Airworthiness Issue Resolution System (AIRS) on the Airworthiness website as the preferred route. Paragraph 1.1.1 also authorizes deviation from specified flight and operating instructions in emergency situations when, in the judgment of the pilot in command, safety justifies it.

The VT-10 study guide puts the training-command view in one sentence: "This supplement is not a substitute for NATOPS!" Students, the guide adds, remain responsible for knowing the content of the manual.

The rule to carry one in the cockpit

Chapter 7 of CNAF M-3710.7 sets the carriage rule. Paragraph 7.1.1.1 says the aircraft commander shall ensure that a current NATOPS flight manual and/or NATOPS pocket checklist is carried onboard the aircraft and readily available during ground and flight operations. If a digital flight manual equivalent is used, a suitable back-up shall be available, which may be printed material or digital flight manuals on an additional approved device sufficient to ensure consistent availability and readability of NATOPS content. The 2009 instruction carried the same sentence, with the back-up to be approved by NAVAIR 4.0P.

Paragraph 7.1.4 adds a mandatory-use rule for the critical phases. NATOPS checklists shall be provided in each aircraft for mandatory use by pilots in preparing for takeoff and landing. Many aircraft also carry abbreviated takeoff and landing checklists placarded or etched on the instrument panel; the manual says these are an additional reminder to complete the required NATOPS manual checklists, not a replacement for them.

Unmanned aircraft have a parallel rule. Paragraph 14.7.1 says that for Groups 4 and 5, the UAS mission commander or UAS aircraft commander shall ensure a current NATOPS flight manual and/or NATOPS pocket checklist is available during ground and flight operations, and that if a digital manual is used, an ACO-approved back-up flight manual and related checklists shall be available.

How changes reach the pocket checklist

A pocket checklist changes when its manual changes. Paragraph 2.3.4 of CNAF M-3710.7 says a NATOPS product is updated by one of three means: an interim change, initiated by an urgent or priority change recommendation and issued by rapid means, normally a message with replacement pages; a change, limited to the pages containing revised information; or a revision, a complete new edition. Interim changes are numbered consecutively for the life of the publication.

The sample interim change message in Figure 2-5 shows the checklist in the loop. The message template states that the replacement pages "impact the following existing NATOPS flight manuals (and checklists as appropriate)" and lists the publication and pages affected. The message is posted on the Airworthiness website within 48 hours of release, in the NATOPS library sorted by aircraft and in AIRS by the AIRS number, and on the NATEC website. A reader who sees an interim change message should expect replacement pages for the manual and, when the changed procedure is one the checklist extracts, for the checklist as well.

Paragraph 2.3.4.3 governs incorporation. Changes are inserted on receipt and the superseded pages destroyed. Interim changes are entered as replacement pages and recorded on the interim change summary page in the front of the manual, and a note says that page should be checked against the NATOPS Status Report to confirm the publication holds the latest update. A replacement page carries its printed change marking plus the number of any interim change that modified it, for example "CHANGE 2 with IC 3." A NATOPS unit evaluation under paragraph 2.7.3 includes a spot check of unit NATOPS manuals for appropriate change incorporation.

How student aviators use the PCL

The VT-10 guide is the clearest public description of a PCL in use. Students are told to bring the NATOPS Pocket Checklist to every familiarization simulator event, along with the NATOPS Flight Manual, a kneeboard, the Training Air Wing SIX in-flight guide, and the Training Air Wing SIX T-6A checklist. Checklists are initiated and read by the student in a challenge-action-response format. The student announces the title, states each challenge, performs the action without verbalizing it, and states the reply; items marked "(BOTH)" need both cockpits to concur before the next step. On completion the student states the checklist title and "complete." If a checklist is interrupted, the call is "holding the checklist at" the item, and "continuing checklist" when it resumes.

The guide also shows what a PCL is not. Two of its checklists, the Instrument Checklist and the Flight Level 180 Checklist, are local additions for student training, and the guide's introduction identifies them as such. Everything else is from Section II of the NATOPS flight manual. A reader comparing a squadron checklist to the aircraft's PCL should expect the local items to be identified and the rest to match the manual.

Electronic NATOPS and the electronic kneeboard

CNAF M-3710.7 recognizes electronic flight publications without defining a separate electronic checklist product. Paragraph 5.1.13 says approved electronic kneeboards (EKBs) can increase situational awareness and lists carriage of electronic NATOPS, flight information publications, charts, and approach procedures among the approved uses. Devices must be operated within the limits of the aircraft's NATOPS manual and the applicable Interim Flight Clearance (IFC), and the approved devices and applications are listed on a NAVAIR PMA-281 site that requires a Common Access Card. The F-35 is the exception that shows the direction: paragraph 2.3.2 says the aircraft uses a Flight Manual Product Set in which the Flight Series Data is an electronic flight manual and the checklist is the Pilot's Checklist, abbreviated PCL.

A 2018 NAVAIR message hosted by Training Air Wing FIVE, the Multiplatform Interim Flight Clearance for Use of Portable Electronic Tablets in Flight, shows how the carriage rule was applied to tablets. The clearance limits tablet use to official purposes, including navigational charts, flight manuals, and mission planning tools, and says the aircraft commander shall verify that all electronic NATOPS and flight publications are current prior to flight. Where digital NATOPS publications are the only airworthiness reference carried, type wings and aircraft commanders are responsible for compliance with the CNAF 3710.7 series through local policy. The wing's own Electronic Kneeboard (Tablet) Program sheet, current as of January 6, 2016, says all tablets must first be approved by NAVAIR and that leg straps must pass a fit check by the squadron EKB representative before they are added to the wing's list.

The question of paper against screen has been studied. A 2001 paper in the Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, Aircrew Performance During Emergency Conditions, compared aircrew using the paper NATOPS manual and PCL with a prototype Interactive Electronic NATOPS, collecting data at Naval Air Station Jacksonville from pilots with recent H-60F experience. The abstract notes that earlier research had found advantages for paper in search time and comprehension, and that an electronic checklist in one flight simulation study had led to fewer detected subsystem failures than a paper one. The paper measured how quickly information could be reached and how long problem scenarios took to solve; the abstract does not state the result.

The maintenance side: FCF checklists

The second named checklist belongs to maintenance as much as to aircrew. COMNAVAIRFORINST 4790.2E, the Naval Aviation Maintenance Program dated 28 October 2024, says in paragraph 5.1.7.2 that NAVAIR issues functional check flight (FCF) checklists based on the FCF procedures in the applicable NATOPS manual. If an aircraft has no NAVAIR FCF checklist, the activity prepares one that records required instrument indications, satisfactory or unsatisfactory performance of each item, and comments. A complete checklist for each FCF profile the NATOPS dictates is routed through Quality Assurance and kept in the aircraft historical file, and deleting or modifying a step is a modified FCF requiring the concurrence of the functional check pilot, Maintenance Control, and Quality Assurance. The same instruction requires that all applicable NATOPS checklists be complied with before re-launch during hot refueling.

What to check

• Is the checklist a NATOPS PCL, FCFCL, or CCL, or a local squadron checklist? Local items should be identified as such, as the VT-10 guide identifies its two training checklists.
• Does every step on the checklist trace to the flight manual, a supplement, another approved NATOPS, or NATIP, as CNAF M-3710.7 paragraph 2.3.2 requires?
• Does the interim change summary page of the parent manual match the NATOPS Status Report, and have the checklist replacement pages named in the interim change message been inserted?
• Is a current flight manual and/or PCL aboard, and if the manual is digital, what is the approved back-up required by paragraph 7.1.1.1?
• For a tablet, is the device and mount on the NAVAIR approved list, and were the electronic publications verified current before flight?

Azcuna's ELLMENT, the E-2D Large Language Model Entity, was proposed to NAVAIR PMA-231 under Navy SBIR Phase I topic DON26BZ01-NV010. The prototype, built at private expense on publicly available doctrine, answers with a page-level citation and refuses when the documents do not support an answer. The proposal has been submitted.

Questions people ask

What is a NATOPS pocket checklist?

A NATOPS pocket checklist, or PCL, is one of the NATOPS Checklists defined in CNAF M-3710.7 paragraph 2.3.2. The manual describes checklists as excerpts, often in abbreviated form, of selected sections of the NATOPS flight manual or a supplement, designed for easy accessibility for use while airborne. The same paragraph names the Functional Checkflight Checklist and the Card Checklist as the other two checklist products. A PCL is a product of the aircraft's NATOPS program, not a locally written aid.

What is in a NATOPS PCL?

CNAF M-3710.7 says a NATOPS checklist is an excerpt of selected sections of the flight manual or a supplement, and that everything in it shall be derived from the flight manual, another approved NATOPS, or NATIP. A 2022 VT-10 checklist study guide hosted by CNATRA says its T-6A checklists were taken from Section II, Normal Procedures, of the T-6A NATOPS Flight Manual, and that emergency procedure phrases are found in that manual and two flight training instructions. The exact sections selected depend on the aircraft.

What is the difference between the NATOPS flight manual and the pocket checklist?

Under CNAF M-3710.7 paragraph 2.3.2, the NATOPS Flight Manual is the full manual for a specific aircraft model, with standardized ground and flight operating procedures, training requirements, aircraft limitations, and technical data. The pocket checklist is an abbreviated excerpt of selected sections of that manual for use while airborne. The manual is the source; the checklist is derived from it. Paragraph 2.3.3.3 says a promulgated NATOPS, one with a Letter of Promulgation, is the approved permanent flight clearance.

Which governs if the PCL and the NATOPS manual differ?

CNAF M-3710.7 does not contain a separate precedence paragraph for checklists. The rule it states is one of derivation: paragraph 2.3.2 says information in a NATOPS checklist shall be derived from the flight manual, another approved NATOPS, or NATIP, so a checklist line that differs from the manual is an error or an unincorporated change. Paragraph 2.5 obligates any user who notes a deficiency or error in a NATOPS product to submit a change recommendation through AIRS.

Do Navy pilots have to carry a NATOPS checklist in the cockpit?

Yes. CNAF M-3710.7 paragraph 7.1.1.1 says the aircraft commander shall ensure that a current NATOPS flight manual and/or NATOPS pocket checklist is carried onboard the aircraft and readily available during ground and flight operations. If a digital flight manual equivalent is used, a suitable back-up shall be available, either printed material or digital manuals on an additional approved device. Paragraph 7.1.4 adds that NATOPS checklists shall be provided in each aircraft for mandatory use in preparing for takeoff and landing.

How do changes get into a NATOPS pocket checklist?

The same way they reach the flight manual. CNAF M-3710.7 paragraph 2.3.4 says a NATOPS product is updated by an interim change, a change, or a revision, and the sample interim change message in Figure 2-5 states which flight manuals and checklists the replacement pages affect. Paragraph 2.3.4.3 says changes are inserted on receipt and recorded on the interim change summary page, which should be checked against the NATOPS Status Report on the Airworthiness website.

Is there an electronic NATOPS checklist?

CNAF M-3710.7 recognizes electronic flight manuals. Paragraph 5.1.13 lists carriage of electronic NATOPS as an approved use of an electronic kneeboard, and paragraph 7.1.1.1 requires a back-up when a digital flight manual equivalent is used. The F-35 uses a Flight Manual Product Set whose Flight Series Data is an electronic flight manual and whose checklist is called the Pilot's Checklist. A 2018 NAVAIR interim flight clearance for tablets says the aircraft commander shall verify all electronic NATOPS and flight publications are current before flight.

What is the FCF checklist?

The Functional Checkflight Checklist (FCFCL) is the second NATOPS checklist named in CNAF M-3710.7 paragraph 2.3.2. COMNAVAIRFORINST 4790.2E, the Naval Aviation Maintenance Program, says in paragraph 5.1.7.2 that NAVAIR issues FCF checklists based on the FCF procedures in the applicable NATOPS manual, and that a complete checklist for each FCF profile the NATOPS dictates must be routed through Quality Assurance and kept in the aircraft historical file.

How is a pocket checklist used during flight training?

A 2022 VT-10 checklist study guide hosted by CNATRA lists the NATOPS Pocket Checklist among the items a student must bring to every familiarization simulator event, with the NATOPS Flight Manual. Checklists are run in a challenge-action-response format: the student announces the checklist title, states each challenge, performs the action, and states the reply, then calls the checklist complete. The guide tells students it is not a substitute for NATOPS and that they remain responsible for knowing the manual.

Sources

1. 1CNAF M-3710.7, NATOPS General Flight and Operating Instructions Manual (February 7, 2025) · Commander, Naval Air Forces, hosted by Navy Medicine (Naval Aerospace Medical Institute)
2. 2CNAF M-3710.7, NATOPS General Flight and Operating Instructions Manual (May 5, 2016) · Commander, Naval Air Forces, hosted by Headquarters Marine Corps Aviation
3. 3OPNAVINST 3710.7U, NATOPS General Flight and Operating Instructions (November 23, 2009) · Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, hosted by Headquarters Marine Corps Aviation
4. 4T-6A Checklist Study Guide, Hollywood Script, TRARONTENNOTE 3710 (May 2022) · Training Squadron TEN (VT-10), hosted by Chief of Naval Air Training (CNATRA)
5. 5Multiplatform Interim Flight Clearance for Use of Portable Electronic Tablets in Flight · Commander, Naval Air Systems Command, naval message (2018), hosted by Training Air Wing FIVE, CNATRA
6. 6Electronic Kneeboard (Tablet) Program · Training Air Wing FIVE, hosted by Chief of Naval Air Training (CNATRA), information current as of January 6, 2016
7. 7The Naval Aviation Maintenance Program (NAMP), COMNAVAIRFORINST 4790.2E, 28 Oct 2024 (with AMAs 2024-04 to 2024-07) · Commander, Naval Air Forces, posted by Naval Air Systems Command
8. 8Aircrew Performance During Emergency Conditions: A Comparison Between An Electronic And Traditional Paper NATOPS · Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (2001), record at University of Central Florida STARS

Where this shows up in our work

• ELLMENT, the offline LLM for E-2D crews answers a crew's question from the aircraft's own manuals and cites the page, with no network.
• TRACE, the offline S1000D and IETM viewer opens S1000D, MIL-STD-3001 and PDF technical manuals on a tablet with every marking intact.