Original Date: 12/06/2004
Revision Date: 01/18/2007

Creative use of a Windows Compact Environment web-based system that is linked to a master flight record database has enabled Army flight personnel to dramatically reduce man-hours needed to meet Army field data collection requirements. This system ensures that flight crews have the latest available aircraft condition, abnormalities, and deficiencies.

The complete record of all flight history for any aircraft military or commercial is essential for proper aircraft maintenance, safety, flight mission profile, aircraft operating parameters, and flight crew information. The U.S. Army Aviation & Missile Command (AMCOM) Integrated Materiel Management Center (IMMC) developed a Windows Compact Environment web-based system that allows all flight data history for any aircraft to be downloaded from a centralized master database to a personal computing device (e.g., a Personal Digital Assistant [PDA]). The system is designed with an interface to the U.S. Army’s Enhanced Logbook Automation System (ELAS), an extensive military reporting system necessary to meet Army field-data collection requirements. Before any flight mission begins, the flight crew logs-on to a web server and downloads the history of that particular aircraft to a portable device (e.g., a USB memory stick). The information is then transferred to the crew’s PDA. Pop-up screens are built into the software program and guide the crew through a set of standard (but customizable and editable menus) for all pre-flight data input, mission profile, and other pertinent flight information.

IMMC’s pocket PC system ensures that the aircraft crew has access to outstanding maintenance issues that, while not flight critical, can have an effect on the particular upcoming flight or mission. As in-flight events occur, the flight crew can input flight or aircraft abnormalities into the PDA for future download to the ELAS system. At the completion of the flight or mission, all updated information is downloaded for future use by other flight crews, logisticians, and maintenance personnel as required. The IMMC’s Aircraft Flight Record system has dramatically reduced data entry times for personnel and provides current and accurate data on all aircraft.

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