Page 43 - World Airnews Magazine May 2020 Edition

TECHNICAL TECHNICAL

THE ARRIVAL OF THE

ELECTRONIC TECHNICAL

LOGBOOK FOR AIRCRAFT

transcends the paper-based platform

By Kirk Strutt, Aerospace and Defence Product Manager and gives a pilot access to aircraft status
anywhere anytime. But by just electron-

ically mimicking paper-systems, airlines

have to effectively integrate two separate
as they provide a view of all aircraft maintenance systems together, making for

maintenance activity, right down to every a complex and complicated muddle.

he aircraft technical logbook nut and bolt. In order for an electronic technical log-

Tplays a key role in aircraft turn- But the logbook itself exists as a book to function effectively it has to be

arounds. It is the primary communica- simple way of interacting between an extension of the core maintenance

tion tool between pilots and a main- maintenance organisation and pilot to system that an airline already has in

tenance organisation. Pilots can see minimise turnaround times. It essential- place. But even this is not the silver bul-

the maintenance status of the aircraft ly acts as a micro maintenance system let to logbook success - there are some

and then report any faults back and - with the ability to sign-off work, track core elements which should be con-
tained within a truly electronic technical
deferred items and look at the history
forth with the maintenance team - but of what has recently been resolved and logbook which will provide airlines with
efforts to digitise this process have so fixed on the aircraft. As such it is essen- a solution to enable easy collaboration

far been ineffective. tial to improving and optimising aircraft and further shrink turnaround times. look and feel like an extension of those. This includes inherently

The principal director in the Accen- turnaround times. built-in dark modes for operating in night-time environments for

ture aerospace and defence practice, In a paper-based scenario, the pilot THE PAPERLESS EXPERIENCE STARTS WAY BEFORE example, and other unique requirements which come from working

Craig Gottlieb, recently went on record has to wait until they are at the aircraft BOARDING – FORE WARNED IS FORE ARMED on an aircraft flight deck. Sounds obvious but not often done!

to say latest research shows A&D com- before seeing what deferrals are The advantage of having data available at the fingertips of pilots as BENEFITS BEYOND THE FLIGHT DECK - THE CONNECTED

panies are scaling more than 55% of associated with a flight. The pilot may they travel to the airport means they can see anything which was WORKFORCE…

their digital proofs-of-concept to pro- have been handed a flight dispatch raised during the inbound flight, even if it hasn’t necessarily been

duction. However, fewer than 20% of in a pre-flight briefing, but this may dispositioned yet. They can start thinking about how a certain type The widespread benefit of next generation electronic technical

them do so successfully to create last- not reflect the current status of an of fault might impact the flight they have, for example the aircraft logbooks is an increasingly connected workforce. Airlines are

ing benefit to their business. Electronic aircraft, often meaning they wouldn’t may require extra fuel because of a performance penalty. striving towards connectivity across their operations, from check-

aircraft technical logbooks would seem contain an up-to-date view of anything Once the mechanics arrive at the aircraft, they no longer need to in, in-flight connectivity right down to a connected and fleet-wide

to be one such development. last minute which took place on the physically walk onto the flight deck to sign-off the logbook. The mechan- maintenance system.

The over-arching benefit of a digitised inbound journey. ics can be down on the ground, outside the aircraft, signing-off tasks by This is the goal, and an effective electronic technical logbook

electronic technical logbook is to min- sending a push notification through their tablet to the pilot, indicating allows pilots to communicate clearly and quickly with the whole

imise silos of information between the TABLETS SOLVE ONE PROBLEM… that everything is good to go, and they can now begin the flight. team involved in flying an aircraft on the day of operations—span-

day of operations workforce -enabling Initial attempts to digitise this process ning mechanics, maintenance control centres, engineers and more.

Kirk Strutt, Aerospace and all stakeholders to work in unison to saw electronic technical logbooks FAULTS LOGGED IN REAL-TIME MEANS MAINTENANCE
Defence Product Manager make the aircraft serviceable and ready integrated into the aircraft itself, ON ARRIVAL …AND IMPROVED SAFETY AND REAL-TIME COMPLIANCE

to depart on time with passengers. which proved a complicated and costly Once the pilot is flying the aircraft, if they encounter any problems, There are also benefits which extend into aircraft safety. When

Kirk has spent the last 20 years working This incredibly paper-heavy process disaster as it required introducing they should be able to log the fault in the app, which should be dealing with a paper logbook, mechanics have to wait for an
aircraft to land, taxi and have passengers disembark before even

closely with numerous commercial of aircraft technical logbooks seems flight proven hardware and software able to push updates to the maintenance department, either in accessing the paper log.

aviation organisations on aviation the obvious target to digitise yet at- systems, not a viable solution. real-time or when the aircraft touches the ground. On aircraft with The mechanic records the faults, then manually inputs it into

in-flight internet connectivity the maintenance organisation will

tempts to do so have fallen far short of
Following that, things moved
maintenance management software the mark, mostly due to problems with forward with the advent of iPads immediately receive a push notification outlining the fault and the core maintenance system. Core systems then run a complex

solutions. complexity of the solutions which have and other tablets being introduced start preparing work orders and parts, so they are ready to address compliance analysis and validation, which flags any faults - some-

times delaying the turnaround time or, even worse, flagging after

As a senior product manager, he is been brought forward. The result is an to the flight deck, which brought the it the moment the aircraft lands. an aircraft has left for its next destination.

extremely low adoption rate of true
possibility to house maintenance data

currently responsible for several products electronic technical logbooks among on a portable mobile device. The main PILOT UX BECOMES CRUCIAL With an electronic logbook inputting data into the core system

within the IFS aerospace and defence commercial airlines. stumbling block here was that these Another area where previous electronic technical logbooks have in real-time, compliance discrepancies can be caught immediately,

preventing the release of an aircraft in a non-compliant state.

First let’s look at the reasons why

portfolio, where he works to understand this has been the case. ‘paperless systems’ actually mirrored often failed is overloading the pilot with information in a format they
are not used to dealing with. It makes no sense to simply expose the
the paper-based systems they were
the business challenges facing the trying to replace. Simply logging tasks complete core maintenance system to a pilot. They require a slim MAINTENANCE DIGITISATION DIRECTLY
IMPACTS PROFIT

industry; and how IFS software solutions ELECTRONIC TECHNICAL manually into an iPad rather than pen and tailored interface which provides quick and easy access to the According to Frost & Sullivan, Tier I airlines in particular, take a holistic

LOGBOOKS HISTORICALLY

can best deliver long term value to the PROVIDE COMPLEXITY, NOT to paper does not make electronic information they need, without the need to go digging around. view of digital transformation, viewing it as an umbrella term that

technical logbooks a fully integrated
This new approach to a true electronic technical logbook, ex-
market. CLARITY, FOR AIRLINES system. tended from a core maintenance system, relies on a simple and el- embraces changes to culture, business models, people, products, as

Prior to that, he has held a variety of The issue with a paper-based aircraft …BUT A NEW DIGITISED egant user interface for the pilot and maintenance technicians. No well as advanced technologies. The adoption of electronic technical

logbooks should be considered a key part of the digitisation of airline

professional services, sales and product technical logbook is that all the infor- APPROACH IS REQUIRED complex integration to aircraft systems or other separate mainte- processes, because maintenance should be a focus point for them.
mation it houses essentially sits as a silo

nance systems; just the right core information delivered between
development roles at Mxi Technologies, a outside the core maintenance system an From a cost-saving perspective every pilot and maintenance organisation, at the right time. Why? By arming the pilot with logbook information well in

leading provider of aviation maintenance airline may be using - regardless of the airline has now provided a pilot with A pilot-driven user experience means the electronic technical log- advance, and connecting the entire operations workforce, airlines

can significantly minimise the last-minute surprises which contrib-

management software that was acquired software provider an airline uses. These an iPad or tablet, to remove as much book developer must build into the UX an understanding of the flight ute to longer aircraft on ground (AOG) scenarios - keeping planes in

paper as possible from the flight deck.

core maintenance systems are incredibly

deck environment where pilots are operating. Many pilots are al-
by IFS in January 2017. granular and complex, for good reason Delivering the logbook over a tablet ready using in-flight apps, so an electronic technical logbook should the air, passengers happy and looking after that bottom line. Q

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