Every year ASC carries out routine flight recorder installation survey on national aircraft. In August official document of flight recorder installation survey form is sent to operators and government agencies. The goal of this survey is to find out the installation of CVR, FDR, FDAU, and QAR in various national operators. The findings would be the reference for enhancement of the readout capability of the investigation laboratory, as well as the basis of the flight recorder readout in relations to the occurrence investigations. The specific works done are:
Survey the models and the manufacturers of flight recorders.
Survey the format of the flight data readout database.
Survey the models and the manufacturers of FDAU.
Survey the installation of the FOQA system.
Statistics of the installation of flight recorders in civil aviation fixed-wing aircraft.
Statistics of the installation of flight recorders in government fixed-wing aircraft.
Statistics of the installation of QAR in civil aviation aircraft.
Statistics of the installation of flight recorders in national rotorcraft.
Analysis of the laboratory readout capability of flight recorders.
Findings
ASC accomplished the annual flight recorder installation survey by November 2011. This survey included 13 operators (China Airlines, EVA Airways, UNI Airways, Far Eastern Air Transport, Trans-Asia Airways, Mandarin Airlines, Aerospace Industrial Development Corporation, Daily Air, Sunrise Airlines, Emerald Pacific Airlines, Winair Jet, ROC Aviation Company) and two government agencies (National Airborne Service Corps. and Civil Aeronautics Administration). According to the responses from all these agencies, there are a total of 228 aircraft including 190 fixed-wings and 38 helicopters. Out of these, 195 are civil aircraft (187 fixed-wings and 8 helicopters) and 33 are government aircraft (3 fixed-wings and 30 helicopters.) We have the following findings after completing the survey:
The proportion of the civil aircraft that installed CVR and FDR are 96.4% and 92.8%.
The proportion of the civil aircraft that installed tape-based CVR and FDR are 1.5% and 1.5%.
The proportion of the civil aircraft that installed 30-min CVR and 120-min CVR are 20.0% and 74.9%.
The proportion of the civil fixed-wings airplanes that installed CVR and FDR are 97.9% and 96.8%.
The proportion of the civil fixed-wings airplanes that installed tape-based CVR and FDR are 1.6% and 1.6%.
The proportion of the civil fixed-wings airplanes that installed 30-min CVR and 120-min CVR are 18.7% and 77.5%.
The proportion of the civil aircraft with the FDR readout database of paper and electronic flies are 67.2% and 69.7%.
The proportion of the FDR readout database with verification is 94.1%.
The proportion of the civil aircraft installing QARs is 87.7%.
The readout capability at ASC LAB for the surveyed CVR and FDR has reached 100% and 97.81% respectively. However, one FDR model (FA2100-4045-00) of L3 Communications and one FDR-25 model (1607-00-00) of Universal Avionics could not be readout due to the shortage of specific equipments.
There are 33 of government aircraft with six CVR, and two FDR installed on six of them. The other 27 government aircraft did not install any flight recorders. The proportion of CVR and FDR installation are 18.2% and 6.1%.
The goal of the ASC Investigation Laboratory is to reach 100% capability of flight recorders readout, and to develop as the flight recorder readout and analysis center of Asia Pacific region. To accomplish this, the laboratory carries out national aircraft flight recorder installation survey every year. The survey result shows that the laboratory has made progressive improvement in achieving 100% readout capability of the surveyed recorders thanks to purchase of new readout equipments and replacement of recorders by the operators. Overall, the proportion of tape-based CVR decreases noticeably to 2.1% while the tape-based FDR remains at 2.2%. In the past we have recommended CAA to promote the use of 120 minutes CVR, there were positive responses in this survey.
Only six of the 33 government aircraft have installed CVR and two have installed FDR. The other 27 government aircraft have not installed flight recorders. The installation rate is quite low on government aircraft. The proportion of CVR and FDR installation are 18.2% and 6.1% respectively. There are no relevant regulations for the installation of recorders on government aircraft. This issue has been reported to the Executive Yuan in 2002, and the government is now paying attention to the government aircraft supervision mechanism. All the 33 government helicopters have installed Global Positioning System now.
The future plans of ASC Laboratory for CVR/FDR readout are:
Establish the readout capability on FDR FA2100-4045-00 of L3 Communications and FDR-25 1607-00-00 of Universal Avionics as soon as possible.
Maintain present readout capability of tape-based flight recorders.
During an investigation, the progress of the FDR readout could be delayed as a result of only a portion (69.7%) of our registered civil aircraft has electronic files of flight data readout database. The Laboratory has actively set up a website named International Recorder Investigator Group (IRIG) to provide a platform for technologies and electronic file sharing to recorder specialists of the transportation investigation organizations in all countries. In case there are no electronic files from the operators, ASC could get similar files quickly using this platform, thus increase the efficiency of readout.
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