Flight Recorders - Alternative Concept for Commercial Aircraft

This paper deals with the issue of deployable flight data recorders. It gives an insight into pros and cons of this solution based on experience gained in military application. Advantages of such solution are at least worth considering as they may help reduce the number of accidents and save lives in the first place. And should the accident happen the location and extraction of evidence is much easier

Airport typology for LCC policy changes: a European perspective

This paper proposes a new airport typology that might arise from the expansion of airports with dominant low cost carrier traffic. In the first part of the paper, the typologies and different airport categorizations are reviewed with examples of current taxonomies used by principal international organizations. However, none of the current airport taxonomies takes into account low cost (LCC) carriers and cannot be used to create an airport market strategy with LCC operation. The paper highlights the characteristic of LCC features, the differences between the LCC airlines, and the characteristics of secondary – low cost airports. Finally, the paper proposes a new taxonomy of airports with low cost operations based on the airport data analysis and expert panel elucidation. For identification of airports with a high share of low cost carriers, Eurocontrol 2013 data on airline types and movements were used. The novel classification of low cost airports enables management to design marketing strategies to respond to LCC dominance and its implications. The main contribution of this research is to provide a novel classification for low cost airports which is relatively new phenomenon comparing with the problems of full service carriers dominance at large airports

Flight Recorders - Alternative Concept for Commercial Aircraft

This paper deals with the issue of deployable flight data recorders. It gives an insight into pros and cons of this solution based on experience gained in military application. Advantages of such solution are at least worth considering as they may help reduce the number of accidents and save lives in the first place. And should the accident happen the location and extraction of evidence is much easier

EFFECTS OF AUTOMATION AND ELECTRONIC DEVICES ON BOARD AIRCRAFT ON PILOT SKILLS, TRAINING REQUIREMENTS AND FLIGHT SAFETY

The present and future challenges of commercial air transport industry require maintaining growth trends in air traffic and at the same time easing congestion in the skies without compromising high safety standards. This all leads to natural evolution of the aircraft cockpit environment. The progress starts now with implementation of headup displays, airport moving maps, interactive electronic checklists, enhanced vision using infrared cameras to enable night time vision and synthetic 3-D vision systems. In the future, technology development will continue with I4D operations, digital taxi realtime uplink of the cleared taxi route via Controller-Pilot Data Link Communication and much more. These modern cockpit features and their necessary future upgrades enable pilots to capitalize on their strengths and help them manage their weaknesses. Information from these systems are presented to the pilots in transparent manner which makes their decision-making process more efficient and safer, especially under stress. Taking into consideration future trends in the cockpit environment, the growth of the air transport and safety requirements, it is necessary to review the role of pilots. Aviation is a sphere where progress and continuous innovation is inevitable. Therefore, it is necessary to keep up with the evolution and adapt also the pilot training and education. Many major world top rated airlines have already implemented for example evidencebased trainings as they realized that the role of the pilot in the cockpit is changing. The basic pilot skills are essential but in today’s air transport operation we also need to take into account that pilots need to have certain managerial skills and therefore balance the training accordingly to make it more efficient. Whether we like it or not, the times of visual approaches and manual flying, especially in big commercial operations, are slowly disappearing. We need to understand this progress and adjust the structure of the pilot training accordingly to be able to deliver the best level of safety efficiency. The paper also deals with the use of portable multimedia devices for VFR flights. It explains the basic terms concerning the use of portable electronic devices on-board aircraft. It analyses the relevant international and national legislation for the use of portable electronic devices on-board aircraft. It includes a survey of the available devices, accessories and software on the market. An analysis and comparison of the devices, based on their technical specifications is included as well. The paper also deals with various aspects of the use of portable multimedia devices for a flight school. It reviews the whole process of selecting a suitable operating system, device, accessories and software with an example of calculation of the required financial expenses. A comparison of the devices based on the battery life in relation to the selected aircraft is also included. Furthermore, the paper considers the mounting options of the devices in the cockpit, points out to required changes in the operational procedures within the flight school and highlights the potential assets which application of portable electronic devices brings