Lightweight, low-cost and flexible flight data monitoring

The practice of flight data monitoring (FDM) is varied and can exist under a number of different sub-categories. Health and Usage Monitoring Systems (HUMS) for rotary aircraft, US Forestry Services (USFS) Next Generation airtankers and Flight Operational Quality Assurance (FOQA) systems are a few examples. FOQA and HUMS systems have traditionally been voluntary, but in recent years increasing numbers of flight services and special mission contracts stipulate that the requirement of FDM must be satisfied. In addition, recent calls have been issued by the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) for small aircraft operators to implement lightweight recorders. Since the majority of aircraft accidents involve small-craft operators, newly deployed FDM systems are poised to increase the effectiveness of safety management programs already in place. In Next Generation airtanker systems, Operational Loads Management (OLM) requires the contract-holder to provide details to USFS that safety regulations are being followed. In this paper, we present the concept and application of a light-weight flight data monitoring appliance for small-size and special-mission aircraft. In the past few years, these devices have been developed to fill the need for FDM in lock-step with contract negotiations. The FDM appliance is capable of recording data from multiple data sources (e.g. analog, discrete, ARINC data bus and RS-232) and has a suite of on-board sensors (e.g. IMU, GPS and accelerometer). We provide case study examples using the IONode FDM product. The examples include Next Generation airtanker and regional carrier FOQA systems that demonstrate the state-of-the-art in operational oversight that is fast becoming both the norm and a requirement in the aviation industry.