Page 16 - World Airnews Magazine April 2021

ADVERTORIAL

FROM BLACK BOXES TO

SENSORS

local airport. Their investigation found no SMS or FDM present –

two safety components that NTSB believes would have prevented
DM has gradually increased in use across aviation. It’s a many of the incidents they have investigated over the last 20 years.

Fnatural progression from the black boxes of the past, which With 70% of Part-135 accidents attributed to human error, risks

provided a way for aircraft operators to investigate accidents. may show up in operational data - if operators routinely took

As an investigative tool, though, it was often complex and tech- notice.

nical. FDM of the past was a reactive approach to safety. Only after

the black box was collected and the flight data downloaded could TURNING FLIGHT DATA INTO VISUAL DATA
operators infer why an incident took place. When Spidertracks launched their Virtual FDR (Flight Data

Over the last 20 years, FDM, or Flight Operations Quality Assur- Recording) in 2019, operators in general aviation had access to

ance (FOQA) as it’s known in North America, has become the most real-time aircraft tracking that logged every 15 seconds and was

highly regarded and potentially effective safety initiative to reach transmitted every minute through a dedicated Iridium satellite

aviation in the last 20 years. channel.

The only problem was that the cost and complexity of FDM pro- Users could virtually watch an aircraft on its flight path, and no

grammes made it primarily accessible for top-tier airliners only. place was too remote.

Analysis of FDM shows its potential to act as a tremendous antic- Now, Spidertracks is extending their Virtual FDR technology
ipatory tool for investigating root causes and risks associated with with ‘Insights,’ a visual dashboard that collects a range of data,

human behaviour. and advises operators on how their aircraft are flying. The data is

Instead of an ad-hoc approach to monitoring flights for safety uploaded automatically and wirelessly upon landing.

purposes, FDM gave airliners a systematic approach to measure ‘Insights’ enables aircraft operators to take on a proactive, rather

risk. than reactive, approach to safety, revolutionizing a sector that

The result? Commercial airliners continue to operate at the low- once relied on cumbersome, clunky, and expensive technology to

est rates of safety incidents in history. understand incidents only after they occurred.
Operators can access ‘Insights’ through the Spider X, a sleek
THE RISKS ARE IN THE DATA plug-and-play piece of hardware that is effortless to install in an

Despite advances in data-collecting technology, general aviation aircraft and simple to use.

has not yet had an entry point into the wealth of valuable insights With the ability to download and transfer information such as

that FDM can provide. roll, pitch, and yaw, operators can utilise ‘Insights’ to set filters

While FDM is a critical component of SMS in airliners, it is not a and parameters to measure this flight data. This can help mitigate

requirement for on-demand charters and commuter flights, known future risks, enhance pilot training, see overarching safety trends

as Part-135 certified flights. and improve operational efficiencies in their business.

Increases in accidents across Part-135 aviation operators in When risks are flagged and investigated before they become

recent years have caused the National Transportation Safety Board losses, it saves operators money by eliminating avoidable expens-

(NTSB) to include ‘Improve the Safety of Part-135 Aircraft Flight es. At its essence, ‘Insights’ is enhancing safety by turning flight

Operations’ in their Most Wanted List of Transportation Safety data into visual data to reveal areas of improvement and areas that
Improvements for 2019-2020. NTSB’s decision to recommend the may require further training.
adoption of SMS and FDM programmes in At its core, the Spider X is an entry point for the General Aviation

general aviation, came after a 2015 accident of a chartered industry into FDM - a proactive safety measure so obvious that it

business jet into an apartment complex while on the descent to a should be accessible for all. Q
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