Apache AH Mk1 Operational Data Recording Exercise An Update

Operational Data Recording (ODR) exercise has completed the first year of a two year data collection effort. Three aircraft have been instrumented and released to the fleet. One aircraft has completed two cycles of Apache transition training. One aircraft has been in service with an operational Apache unit. The third aircraft has been deployed. A total of 1256 hours have been flown on the three aircraft. 281 hours of ODR data have been gathered during that period. The instrumentation system has been reasonably robust. Issues with the data transfer system between fixed and rotating systems have been noted. Maintenance issues due to the interaction of instrumented and non-instrumented parts have also been noted. The results have shown that, in general, the actual usage is a sub-set of the Design Usage Spectrum. Differences have been noted in the total number of occurrences of some maneuver types and differences in the distribution of occurrences between sub-types of maneuvers. Differences in the pilot technique used to perform two maneuvers, run-on landing and in ground effect hover turn, have shown significant differences between loads measured during the flight loads survey and maneuver loads resulting from the same maneuver flown by fleet pilots.