NLR-ATSI has made animations of the aerobatic manoeuvres that the F-16 Demo Team of the Royal Netherlands Air Force (RNLAF) performs during airshows. The animations are based on flight data recorded during the display performed by Capt. Ralph “Sheik” Aarts at the 2009 ‘Luchtmachtdagen’ at Volkel Airbase and have been visualized using Microsoft Flight Simulator X. The animations can be viewed on the website of the demo team. The website contains animated movies for each of the ten manoeuvres performed during a ‘high show’.
The involvement of NLR in the analysis of RNLAF flight displays originates from the accident investigation following a crash in 1980 of an NF-5 fighter while training for an air display. The accident caused the RNLAF to issue new guidelines for the execution of demonstration flights and NLR was asked to check whether proposed demonstration programs could meet these new rules. In the course of time NLR’s involvement extended gradually to technical support and briefing of the concerning demo team in an effort to enhance flight safety. Part of the technical support concerns the analysis of flight data.
NLR-ATSI is developing a tool that can be used to provide a “safety debrief” to pilots, giving insight into (flight envelop) exceedances and safety related events that have occurred during the flight. Apart from feedback about individual flights, also fleetwide trend analysis is available.
Flight data analysis is an important part of flight safety assurance. Many airlines therefore monitor their day-to-day operations for any exceedances or events and take the necessary actions to mitigate negative trends. This process is known as Flight Data Monitoring (FDM) or Flight Operations Quality Assurance (FOQA). Commercial off-the-shelve software is available to assist airlines in doing so. However, these tools cannot always help airlines in case they wish to analyse the more complex flight operational issues. That is why NLR-ATSI provides additional analysis varying from statistical analysis of the results to detailed flight data analysis using advanced data processing algorithms and visualization tools.
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