A New, Flexible, Approach to Flight Data Acquisition

Historically the proactive monitoring and analysis of flight data has precipitated meaningful safety and operational benefits. Unfortunately, until recently these benefits have been restricted to larger helicopters and fixed wing aircraft inasmuch as size, weight, cost, and other technical constraints have inhibited the introduction of data collection technologies in small rotorcraft. In 2006 Appareo Systems, in conjunction with the Bristow Group, began design work on a small, inexpensive, lightweight data recorder specifically targeted at legacy turbine and piston rotorcraft. The team’s objective was to create a recorder that could be inexpensively retrofitted into dozens of rotorcraft platforms with minimal modification, such that those aircraft could be incorporated into HOMP/FOQA efforts and realize the significant benefits that accompany the deployment of such programs. The product developed through these design efforts utilizes an internal IMU/GPS to generate a great deal of information regarding aircraft kinematics in space. This information can then be augmented by data made available data from other sources, such as the aircraft bus or analog instrumentation.