Omniflight on Alert

Omniflight Helicopters has committed to adding Appareo Systems’ Aircraft Logging and Event Recording for Training and Safety (ALERTS FDM) system to a number of its aircraft. Under the agreement, Omniflight will begin equipping 35 of its aircraft with the ALERTS system, a hardware and software package that captures all aspects of each flight using an innovative, lightweight inertial measurement device designed specifically for light and legacy aircraft. ALERTS combines flight data recording, monitoring and three-dimensional flight recreation to help aircraft operators minimize risks to their fleets. The system helps pilots maintain safe flying practices by tracking each flight in detail, then automatically analyzing it to be sure that all aspects of the flight were within acceptable limits. Each of the 35 Omniflight aircraft will be outfitted with Appareo's GAU 2000 flight data monitoring device which collects and stores flight information on both a removable SD memory card and an internal crash-hardened flash memory unit. After each shift, flight crews remove the SD card and transfer the information to Appareo's servers using a specialized computer. This data is automatically parsed and compared against a set of standard operating procedures created by Omniflight. If any aspect of a flight falls outside of those criteria, a report is generated and sent to Omniflight's safety analysts. After receiving the report, the analyst can download and watch the flight in a rich 3-D format to determine if the matter warrants further attention.