F.O.R.M.S / F.O.Q.A

James Albright (a former G450 driver)

Updated: 2013-10-31

As strange as it may seem, one of the things I miss about military aviation was the flight evaluation pyramid.

In theory, you have a group of flight examiners checking everyone at the squadron level, followed by the next level checking them, all the way to the top; the top guy is checked by the bottom guy to keep everything honest. Of course the top guy never really gets an honest check but that's the way it is supposed to work. (As the top guy I once sailed through the evaluation and overheard the bottom guy say, "Now I get to keep my job.")

Here in the corporate civilian world I crave outside evaluation and don't feel like we really get that with our once every 6 month 61.58, or even with the 135.293/297 back when I got those.

That's why I jumped at the chance for the G450 Flight Operations Risk Management System (FORMS). Now I get an honest appraisal of how I am doing and the peer pressure to do things right has always been a strong motivator. I recommend it.

By the way, the "S" is alternately called System and Service in the literature.

Everything here is from the references shown below, with a few comments in an alternate color.

Source: Gulfstream Flight Operations Risk Management Service (FORMS) Presentation

  • What is it?

    • Flight Operations Risk Management Service

      • Process utilizing downloaded flight data to review operations and provide feedback to operator

    • C-FOQA/C-FDM

      • Same concept utilized extensively in Airlines

      • Flight Operations Quality Assurance (FOQA) or Flight Data Monitoring (FDM)

    • Why the “C”designation?

      • Corporate operations are different than airline

      • Unique operations requires different solution and process

  • Increases operational safety level

  • Identifies areas that need improvement/attention

    • Pilot procedures

    • ATC procedures

    • Aircraft maintenance issues

  • Potential for significant risk mitigation

  • Potential for increased re-sale value (electronic record)

  • Provides data for engine trending

  • Lower cost of getting FDR data and data is available much faster

    • no special equipment or Techs needed

  • Four Event Categories

    • Unstable Approach

      • Speed, Glide Path Deviation, Rate of Descent, Runway Alignment, Configuration

    • Aircraft Limitation Events

    • Engine Limits, Airframe Limits, Operational Limits, Stall Margin

  • Maintenance Events

    • Smoke/Fire Warning, Hard Landing, Hydraulic Failure, etc.

  • Flight Operations Events

    • Windshear, Abnormal G’s, Abnormal Bank Angle/Roll Rate, EGPWS Alerts, RTO, Excess Taxi Speed, Slam Dunk Approach

 

 Getting the Data

The data comes from the flight data recorder and is stored on the Micro Quick Access Recorder (QAR)

Micro QAR Download

  1. Remove LEER upper panel.

  2. Remove LEER lower panel.

  3. Connect Toughbook to uQAR with USB cable.

  4. Boot up the Toughbook.

  5. Open uQAR icon.

  6. Use default settings:

    1. Extract and Process

    2. Full Dump

    3. Packed Frames

  7. Extract

  8. Name extracted data with date extracted

Data to USB Drive

  1. C: Drive.

  2. Program Files.

  3. L3 Com.

  4. uQAR.

  5. Drag files to USB Drive

image.png

You will need a copy of the data collection program, WASABI, available from Gulfstream. (It is currently only available for Windows platforms.

Make sure your USB drive is accessible to the computer.

Open the Wasabi program and select your aircraft from the Aircraft ID drop down box. Select "Collect File(s)" or "Collect Folders" then navigate to the USB drive. The system will upload the files and let you know when it is done.

 
image.png

Accessing the Data

Gulfstream will give you access instructions.

 References:

Gulfstream Flight Operations Risk Management Service (FORMS) Presentation, undated