Flight Data Recorder

[Terry Terrenoire]

Earl: Have you gotten some good data from the flight recorder yet. Would
be interested in your observations!

Terry T.


On Sun, 29 Jun 2003 13:26:06 EDT EHaury at aol.com writes:
An ad in the latest MA by Eagle Tree Systems for a Flight Data Recorder
attracted my attention. Being able to record airspeed / altitude / servo
commands, etc., for review after a flight would seem to be a useful tool
for pattern and this device is advertised to do just that for a
reasonable price ($150). Details are at: www.eagletreesystems.com

The first good sign is service, ordered Tues. morning and received Fri.
Second good sign is that the software loaded on my PC without a hitch.
The recorder calibrated as described and was in a Hydeout and in the air
in no time (still Friday). Lastly, data from the flight transferred to my
PC for evaluation. (A supplied USB cord between the recorder and PC.)

It's tricky to interpret the data from the supplied graphics in that you
need to figure out just where in the pattern the data were generated. I
flew a take off sequence with a level 180 to enter the pattern, so
altitude data were consistent for a while and the first pull-up was
obvious. With the playback on slo-mo, altitude changes and elevator
inputs allow one to follow a pattern pretty well.

The data can be transferred to Excel and manipulated to provide graphics
of the data of interest. It took about 45 min. to build charts of
airspeed, elev, and altitude for the Square on Corner (I'm a bit Excel
rusty). The data clearly show the entry altitude, the altitude gained (or
lost) between elevator inputs, max altitude, finish altitude, and the
airspeed through the maneuver. Pretty nifty!

The device comes set to capture data at the rate of 4/sec which will give
22 min. of record. I found that 8/sec is probably better for our use
(10/sec max available) and that will give about 13 min of record. When
the buffer is full it stops collecting until reset. I've made no effort
to verify speed and altitude measurements except that with the
recommended altitude calibration it knows the runway is 0 altitude.
(Relative numbers are of good value anyway.)

Overall this device looks to be a useful tool to help one improve
practice sessions. There is no realtime downlink or closed loop control,
so nothing outside the rules. (Hmmm - judge thinks entry and exit
altitudes differ, wonder if he / she would like to see the real numbers?)


Earl
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