Abstract:

Flight Data Recorder is one of the most important systems for accident analysis. It not only gives an insight into the pilot operating skills but also its data analysis can provide the picture of aircraft system health and maintenance practices. This paper describes the principle and operation of aircraft flight data recorder and explains the work done to develop a classroom 7 channel digital flight data recorder for hands on learning and teaching avionics fundamentals of FDR, data retrieval and data interpretation. The table top FDR is based on 16 bit, 8 MHz microcontroller connected to 1: 30 scale aircraft model with operable control surfaces. The model provides flexibility to the instructor to operate the aircraft control surfaces and transducers from hand held device. The flight simulation data is stored in the on-board solid state, non-volatile memory. The simulated flight data is retrieved using PC based interfaced software based on MATLAB® to provide graphical and digital interface. The project provides ease in teaching the concepts of flight data recording, microcontroller interface principles and interpretation of flight parameters and attitude from the graphical data.

Keywords:

Flight Data Recorder, Performance analysis, accident investigation, microcontroller, interfacing, graphical analysis, MAT LAB®, control surface, sensors.