Vision 1000 FDM approved for AgustaWestland helicopters

MSP Aero has announced that the Federal Aviation Association (FAA) has recently granted a Supplemental Type Certificate for the Appareo Vision 1000 Flight Data Monitoring (FDM) device on AgustaWestland AW109/119 series rotorcraft.

The Vision 1000 is a part of Appareo Systems' Aircraft Logging and Event Recording for Training and Safety (ALERTS) family of FDM products. The comprehensive FDM system is designed for light and legacy aircraft. ALERTS include both hardware devices like the Vision 1000 and a powerful suite of software and web-based applications that allow aircraft operators of any size to experience the significant safety and training benefits of a comprehensive Flight Operations Quality Assurance (FOQA) program.

The Vision 1000 is a compact, lightweight device that is mounted on the ceiling of the aircraft; it captures detailed flight data, video cockpit imagery and ambient audio with optional intercom system integration. Weighing less than half a pound and requiring only power and ground from the aircraft, the Vision 1000 is easily installed in both fixed and rotor-wing aircraft. All data is stored on a crash-hardened internal memory module as well as a removable SDHC memory card for easy access.

According to the company, once downloaded from the SD card, flight data is automatically transferred to Appareo's ALERTS servers where it is analyzed against the operator's standard operating procedures (SOPs). Any flights with events falling outside the SOPs are flagged for later review and all flight data is stored for historical trending with AS Web Analyzer, the web-based component of the ALERTS system. The AS Web Analyzer offers operators a powerful set of tools to identify dangerous trends before they result in an incident and to quantify fleet performance over time.