The Air Charter Safety Foundation (ACSF), in partnership with AirSync and CloudAhoy, is offering a low-cost flight data monitoring (FDM) program to the more than 300 small and medium Part 135 operators that are member companies, the organization announced Monday at NBAA-BACE 2022.
This move comes as the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has called for the FAA to mandate FDM programs on all passenger-carrying operations. In fact, the Safety Board views FDM so beneficial that it has included the recommendation on its latest "Most Wanted" list of safety improvements.
Through the ACSF partnership, operators will have access to AirSync’s hardware—a device the size of a smartphone—and CloudAhoy’s software at an annual cost of just under $4,000, ACSF president Bryan Burns told AIN. “[With] flight data monitoring you’re taking parameters, data points off the airplane,” he said. “So if you extended the flaps, overspeed, or did something, there are several parameters you could be monitoring.”
FDM documents an entire flight on what occurred and allows users to set parameters that an operator exceeds. In such instances, a parameter that’s been exceeded shows up as a red flag. “A lot of charter owners, operators, and presidents ask the question, ‘How do you know what the pilot is doing?’” Burns added. “This captures the data.” Three companies completed a year-long beta test of ACSF’s FDM program, he added.
Burns emphasized that the information derived from flight data monitors is not meant to be punitive and should not be used for disciplinary action by company managers or the FAA. “You do and the whole thing will implode,” Burns said. “This is all about coaching. This is all about educating”
FDM works in concert with ACSF’s aviation safety action plan (ASAP) program administered in collaboration with the FAA. ASAP provides a non-punitive avenue for an organization's employees—including pilots, mechanics, flight attendants, ground handlers, and others—to report safety violations and deficiencies. These reports are reviewed and used to address problems and the data is accumulated to discover more systemic safety issues, “You’re learning from others,” he explained. “You’re sharing mistakes and errors not only internally but with colleagues and the industry. And it’s a wealth of information, a wealth of data, that you can analyze and hopefully correct.”
Like ACSF’s ASAP database, operators will be able to benchmark FDM data with other ACSF member companies. Year to date, there have been more than 2,000 reports filed through ACSF’s ASAP database.
“If you’re doing just culture, SMS, industry audit standards, ASAP, and FDM, in my view you’re managing and mitigating risk at its highest levels,” Burns concluded.