Clay Lacy Aviation is a full service aviation company providing aircraft management, charter, FBO, maintenance, and related services. Founded in 1968 and headquartered in Los Angeles, Clay Lacy operates the largest privately owned aircraft management fleet in the United States, and has hundreds of active Web manuals users across the organization. Clay Lacy holds multiple FAA certificates including Part 91, Part 135, and Part 145.
No Single Source, No Single Standard
Before Web Manuals, Clay Lacy had a limited centralized system for managing flight operations and safety documentation. Manuals and documents were spread across departments, stored in different applications, and controlled through different processes. Word documents, FrameMaker, and various other tools all played a role, and update and review processes varied from team to team. For a company operating across multiple aircraft types and regulatory requirements, that complexity added up quickly.
One Tool, One Process
Since implementing Web Manuals, Clay Lacy has been able to bring all safety and flight operations documentation under a single platform with a consistent process for tracking, updating, and distributing manuals across the entire organization.
Whether updating an SMS manual or a flight crew policy, every team follows the same process, creating efficiency, time savings and better cross team collaboration.
Eloy Freitas
VP of Safety, Quality and Continuous Improvement
Web Manuals combined editing, distribution and document organization in one place. For Clay Lacy, one of the biggest advantages has been the ability to link manuals together, making change management across multiple documents far more manageable, particularly when a regulatory update impacts several manuals at once. A consistent approval workflow across every team also brought a better level of standardization.
Staying Ahead of Regulatory Change
With operations spanning Part 91, Part 135, and Part 145 keeping up with regulatory changes across multiple authorities is a constant challenge. Web Manuals’ compliance libraries have taken much of the strain out of that process.
The regulatory library definitely helps us and saves us a lot of time — in aviation you have so many regulations and industry requirements that it’s always a challenge to keep up with all the changes.”
Eloy Freitas
VP of Safety, Quality and Continuous Improvement
Part 5 has been particularly relevant. Web Manuals supported Clay Lacy from the early days of their SMS Voluntary Program and continues to support their Declaration of Compliance process today.
The Features That Made the Difference
With hundreds of users on the platform, the features that have had the most impact go beyond document storage. The mirror function, which links manuals so that updates carry across multiple documents simultaneously, has reduced the risk of errors and saved considerable time. The approval workflow has improved communication both within and between teams. And the ability for any user to submit feedback directly within a document, with full visibility and traceability for administrators, has transformed how Clay Lacy gathers input and improves its documentation over time.
Advice for Others Considering the Switch
Clay Lacy’s transition took time — over a year of internal assessment to map out every area of the business that would benefit before implementation began. Eloy’s advice to others considering the move is simple: do the homework first.
Map your processes, understand your gaps, and engage all the stakeholders before you start. Once we had that study ready, the implementation itself took very little time.”
Eloy Freitas
VP of Safety, Quality and Continuous Improvement
For Clay Lacy, flight operations and safety were the primary drivers. As the benefits have become clear across those areas, the next step is expanding Web Manuals further into other parts of the business.