Rotor & Wing Aviation Services P/L

Rotor & Wing Aviation Services P/L

Tamperproof Electronic Timer/GPS Monitor

Brief

Background.

After speaking with Tony Carmody recently, he explained some of the details which were put forward by CASA (Polkinghorn) as a solution for the under logging of flight time on maintenance releases.

After giving some presentations to Robinson safety courses on engine monitoring in the past, the biggest hurdle to the introduction of monitoring by the musterers was the unrealistic flight & duty times issue. As I understand it, Polkinghorn has put forward a strong and rational case for introducing flexible flight & duty times to reflect the true "goings-on" within the mustering industry. The crux of this entire revision of flight times was to allow and to facilitate the introduction of electronic monitoring to bring accountability into the mustering industry to prevent underlogging of MAINTENANCE hours in response to the incidents which came to the public's attention last year.

It now appears after Polkinghorn has left the scene that a large portion of the mustering industry is lobbying for all the benefits of the proposed legislative changes BUT without the key or thrust of the entire proposal - to bring to the industry accountability of MAINTENANCE hours. It appears that the industry lobby groups and indeed possibly some CASA representatives, have lost sight of the thrust of the intended legislation as drafted by Polkinghorn. It would appear that they would like all the benefits and flexibility of the legislation but without the important centerpiece of the draft ruling - accountable MAINTENANCE hours by electronic monitoring.

The reason of course why accountable MAINTENANCE hours is the crux of this proposed legislation is to ensure a return to operating aircraft within the LEGAL and DESIGNED SAFE operating limits. The fact that some operators have been grossly overflying designed servicing intervals and component replacement intervals should not be seen as a stamp of approval for expanding the authorised servicing or parts replacement intervals. The operator does not know ALL the design parameters which the manufacturer has allowed for in developing his safe servicing schedule.

It would appear that the anti-monitoring group appears to be trying to push the view that so long as they have the greater leniency to increase flight & duty times, that they will therefore faithfully log all maintenance hours accrued - "trust me". It is well known in not only the mustering industry but the remainder of GA (both rotary and fixed wing), that to reduce direct operating costs stemming from scheduled maintenance activities

(based on time lifed components or servicings), underlogging of maintenance hours is a widespread (and verging on accepted) practice within the industry. This very practice being responsible for bringing the entire issue to a head in the last half of 1999.

The adoption of only part of the Polkinghorn solution will not solve the endemic problem within the industry or create a "level playing field" of competition on which aircraft will be costed and charged out at realistic rates to the customer. Already fraudulent falsifying and over stating of hours flown on any one customers invoice to maintain an artificially low hourly charge out rate is becoming an accepted practice to replace the under logging of maintenance hours due to the.

Customers need to have access to electronic print outs of aircraft hours flown between particular dates or on particular flights to ensure that honesty in the billing of any airwork charged. Taxis and other vehicles charged on a time or distance rate have such electronic devices to ensure correct billing. It is high time the aviation community embraced it as well rather than assuming that honesty in hours reporting is taking place - especially when TIME is such a major cost in operating since servicing and component replacement/overhaul is based on TIME.

Proposed Piston Engine Timer/GPS Recorder.

Below is an outline in the capabilities and features the prototype timer/GPS monitor RWAS will contain. This will provide a minimum core product which can readily be expanded in a modular form to allow flexibility and adaptability of the product range across a wide variety of engine monitoring applications.

Piston Single engine, Time & GPS Position Recording

HardWare Capabilities:

Tamperproof- from chassis entry, power interruption, sensor lead interruption.
Tamperproof - data download or traceable data trail. Unable to "lose" a data download log. Have a coded electronic numbering system (computer/monitor generated) to enable tracking of sequential downloaded data.
Difficulty in erasing data for accountability purposes in the GroundStation
Records each flight (engine start) with engine operating date & time stamp at time of engine start.
Record engine warm up period - displayable in reports
Record GPS position -with an ability to vary the sampling rate (every 10 seconds) using the groundstation.
Will show position heading, speed, time, aircraft callsign (programmable), skids on/off (Optional)
Able to transmit real time data and record the same data for later download and analysis. (Optional)

Long term Options:

"Crash" memory capability of remembering every second of data for up to 14 minutes after an engine has stopped ("crashed"). Potentially a valuable tool to assist in accident investigation
Storage capacity of data which should last at least 300 hrs of flight before download. Download via either laptop, mobile workshop PC, data transfer device or remote data retrieval (modem or radio link),
Download data electronic transportable via email to other centres/agencies. etc. Simple download procedure.
Maintenance Log capability (Optional)
Unit will be easily mounted - minimum interface with an aircraft initially to reduce certification problems and delays for the first units. Only power being provided by aircraft.
Size - Smallest, most compact size obtainable especially for the GPS and timer unit only. No bigger than 6"x 1 3/4 "x 3 3/4"
Weight - Minimum weight possible. Max weight of recorder unit O.SKgs for Timer/GPS recorder.
Chassis Construction - Simple, strong, robust thick alloy casting. Shock, vibration and heat resistant/tolerant.
Easy to mount
Heat tolerant/proof. To be able to withstand the heat of both cockpit in summer heat and engine bays. Up to +85 C
Withstand very high Humidity (95%) Shock resistant - 12g
Power - Main power source from aircraft main battery bus 8 - 35 VDc. Using minimum power/amps as possible when active.
Backup power - an internal power source capable of retaining unit memory and data retention should main power fail or be interupted.
Backup power capable of recording at least one or two flights or about lOhrs minimum after an interruption to main power supply has occurred to protect against Tampering.
No feedback to aircraft sensors, systems or power supply
Unit to be voltage spike resistant and not feedback to the aircraft in any
Back up timing device in event of primary device failure. This may take the form of a separate counter style of system to record/display cumulative elapsed time (Optional) Able to measure airborne time by using either a proximity device to act as the airborne sensor - have it so that if the sensor is blocked or interfered with, it will record the engine operating time based on the engine sensor as the trigger. (Optional)

Expandable channel capacity to include comprehensive engine/airframe monitoring sensors for operators desiring affordable asset protection should the operator desire.

SOFTWARE:

Capable of showing GPS position on a digital aeronautical chart on PC. Each flight could be reviewed or printed out with ref to GPS position on the applicable scaled map if desired.
Create simple report on time breakdown. Total, Elapsed, individual flights, total number of flights. Number of Take off & landings can also be reported if a ground proximity device is fitted.
Field programmable.
Monitor capable of being reconfigured via laptop to change polling rates, measures of units (lat & Long, UTM meters, nautical mile),
Programmable alert regions or boundaries on the map,

Benefits.

Accurate Maintenance hours recorded.

Accountability of aircraft hours reporting - for both Maintenance (CASA) and the customer (billing/charge out rate)

Auditing tool for CASA to ensure integrity of an operator and simplify CASA audits.

Savings in time/man hours wasted currently on Safety Audits by both CASA staff and the operators by using a "master" time sheet print out form the "Technology Centre". True operating costs will have to be passed on to the customer (accounting for true maintenance costs)

Create a "level playing field" for the industry by recognizing true operating costs. Eliminate illegal night flying - hence reduce night fatalities due disorientation, inadvertent IMC etc

Data recorder which may be of assistance post crash for accident reconstruction. "Crash" report of every second of data for up to 14 minutes prior to the engine stopping.

GPS position recording can provide route print outs for every flight if desired. This can be done on any digital map presentation.

Real time data transmission capability may be used to improve SAR capability in a localized region using either a modem or radio link module if desired. This has the ability to display real time GPS position of an aircraft on a remote PC using either modem (cell or satellite phone) or by local radio network if used. An operator could conceivably "see" where his aircraft are on a digital map on a PC - a poor mans radar.

Electronic time print outs available for customer verification of hours being charged with each invoice.

Electronic print outs available for customer requests to verify hours flown prior to the job and after the job if required (XXXXX??)

Possible endorsement from Aircraft Insurance Underwriters with the possibility of premium discounts similarly structured to the Robinson Safety course if Industry acceptance is forthcoming.
Possible endorsement from Aircraft finance companies for aircraft purchased on finance. This may also have possibilities of discounts or other cost reductions if industry acceptance of electronic monitoring is forthcoming.
Cost of installing electronic monitoring may be reduced by way of bulk discounts if group orders are received through organizations such as the HAA.

To Provide Accountability.

As a means of ensuring accountability of the downloaded data and to assist in making CASA's job of auditing this process far easier, the following capability and procedure is offered.

RWAS and its partner company (GPS Online.com) are establishing a Technology Centre which processes downloaded data from vehicle fleets currently operating vehicle monitors involved in various applications from waste disposal to bulk liquid deliveries. These industries also require close supervision and accountability of their operations for numerous reasons including illegal dumping of waste and liquid product (eg petroleum) being offloaded and sold on the black market prior to reaching the legitimate customer. An independent reporting systems provides routine reports to the management of these vehicle fleet operators flagging any exceptions or anomalies.

This same service could be utilised by CASA as a means of controlling and running a master archival centre for aviation monitor data. Each operator could be required to send in all downloads to this central Technology Centre. The Centre would ensure that the flight log data is sequential and has not been tampered with. The Centre would process all data and compile the time/GPS reports. (The operator can still run his own reporting and data processing at his maintenance facility - in fact he should be encouraged to do so).

When CASA is scheduled to audit a particular company, the Flight Operations Inspector would request from the Technology Centre a complete print out of all the aircraft registrations that the company has monitors fitted to. This then becomes the Inspectors "master" print out of operating times against which he can quickly check to see if there are any gross anomalies between this print out and the maintenance release times held by the operator. If the operator has been running his own reports from the Time/GPS monitor, there will be minimal, if any discrepancies. If the operator has not been running his own reporting, there may a slightly larger discrepancy but nothing of any large magnitude. (An operator not wanting to process his own downloaded data may request

routine reports from the Technology Centre to routinely compare the Maintenance Release and the Electronic Time/GPS monitor).

This system will ensure people cannot "cheat" by underreporting maintenance hours. It will provide CASA and the industry an independent source of accurate data on the operating times of each and every operating aircraft. Against this, CASA can reliably and confidently check maintenance release forms and streamline the audit process. Concentrating on the areas that audits are designed to look at rather than spending the majority of the time in determining if the fundamental lynch pin in aircraft safety is being carried out - that accurate and true maintenance times are being reported.

Methods of Enforcement.

Until the "scam" culture is eradicated, the reporting system will be tested by individuals and organisations. Breaches will be seen and thus a penalty or "stick" must be used to discourage this practice. Should breaches or under reporting be detected by 1701's, the current laws which enable suspension of AOC should be enforced as was exercised last year. At least with electronic tamperproof monitoring, detection and proof against unscrupulous operators will be far more straight forward and less time consuming by both CASA and the aircraft operator.

It will remove the need for FOI's to resort to "conniving" to prove some vague correlation of hours flown by comparing maintenance time with fuel used registers (which are never kept accurately by operators in any case) or seeking fuel invoices from customers of the helicopter operator.