industry Wi-Flight features Web browser-based flight playbacks featuring synthetic vision and dual CVR audio channels. LOW-COST FLIGHT DATA MONITORING S T O R Y B Y B L A N D I N G S L O A N uppose you are a small fleet operator – perhaps a flight school – and you want to know what your airplanes are doing. Perhaps you have a rental that just about anybody can fly. Your operation has never had a hull loss or fatality, so everything’s fine. Or is it? How can you be sure you’re not accumulating hidden stresses to your airframes from careless flying or unreported issues? You really can’t be sure without some sort of flight data monitoring. FDM is a way to get a handle on fleet condition and pilot performance. It’s common among large helicopter operations and commercial aviation. But, high-end sensors and recorders collect more data than a small operator needs, and the additional ground equipment and expertise to inter- S 54 avionics news • may 2012