SAFETY IS ANOTHER HUGE BENEFIT
The system offers two major points of information, Swayze noted: “How that aircraft is operating, and how it’s being operated.”
So alongside real cost savings, Foresight fulfills a critical safety need. When the International Helicopter Safety Foundation analyzed more than 1,000 helicopter accidents, it came up with eight initiatives to improve safety and HUMS was one of them.
Foresight adds even more safety value by acting as an excellent training tool. If a pilot does something especially well – or badly – the team can fly Foresight data through the X-Plane flight simulator, make comments and use it for training.
“They can re-fly the entire mission and see what led into that situation and how they got out of it, which is pretty valuable,” Bechhoefer said.
Managers can track flight details real-time as well. So if a pilot over-torques on takeoff, for example, managers can see it and ask what happened.
Data automatically uploads to the cloud at the end of each flight via cellular or Wi-Fi; no more pulling the FTD card and downloading data manually. Foresight then immediately sends SMS and email alerts, but only if it spots a problem. That includes too much
vibration, because maintaining lower vibration is good for the pilot and passengers as well as the overall reliability of the aircraft.
Bechhoefer is keenly aware of the need to keep unnecessary or false alerts to the lowest number possible.
“A false alarm is the death of these systems,” Bechhoefer said. An operator is angry the first time it happens; the second time, he’ll slap black tape over the offending equipment. “So I designed the system to have a false alarm rate of one in a million,” he said, adding. “If anyone tells you they never have a false alarm, they’re lying because you can’t have a detection process without it.”
GPMS secured its first FAA STC on the light Bell 407 in collaboration with Bell, then quickly launched its product with Duke Energy. After testing Foresight on one rotorcraft in 2018, Duke was sold on the product. Duke went full-in the following year, installing Foresight on its entire fleet.
“From the start, we were excited about GPMS’s Foresight HUMS as a next-generation offering. We were really struck with the impact this tool had on our fleet,” said Ron Hughes, Duke Energy manager of aviation maintenance. “Having experienced Foresight, our maintenance techs have become real advocates for the system.”
Advanced monitoring systems track how a helicopter is being operated (flight data monitoring) and how the machine itself is operating (rotor track and balance, engine, and drivetrain monitoring), providing a complete picture for maintenance, safety, and operations.
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