Flight Data Recorders as HUMS: A Report on Data Fusion Issues, Including the Accuracy of Manually-Entered Data from an Australian Army Black Hawk Trial.

The Australian Army Black Hawks are fitted with Flight Data Recorders (FDRs) for the primary purpose of post-incident investigation. Previous work has identified the FDR as a possible source of data for electronic usage monitoring. To quantify the benefits of this style of usage monitoring, a trial was conducted using Black Hawks from a training squadron. The outcome and reporting of that year-long trial prompted an extension of the trial to two operational squadrons in 2005. This report compares the results of the training squadron with the results of the operational squadron. The report is a comparison of manually-entered usage data (via a standard form) with FDR data. During the trial, FDR data was downloaded and processed in conjunction with the standard forms used to capture usage data. Analysis of this data identified problems related to data retrieval, reliability of the data stream and other data-fusion issues. Comparisons between the manual data and the FDR data allowed the fidelity of the manual data to be assessed.