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25hr CVR ? and FDR ??

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rb1957

Aerospace
Apr 15, 2005
15,750
I thought we were moving to storing FDR data off-site (ie at a ground station, not on the plane in the black box), or possibly in both places (as a data disaster recovery provision). Why not the CVR as well ? If we record 25hr we'll soon have an incident where they'll say "damn it, I wish we had 26hr of recording".

another day in paradise, or is paradise one day closer ?
 
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probably

another day in paradise, or is paradise one day closer ?
 
The additional communications bandwidth might be an issue for the near- to mid-term. I'm not sure that Inmarsat or Iridium could accommodate it. Other options are too piecemeal.

But it is probably doable in the longer term. Once high bandwidth communications become ubiquitous and standardized.

Bandwidth_udvgbl.jpg
 
REF the recent Lion Air 737Max8 crash... the FDR has been found...

From an early article RE the accident...


Data Recorder Shows Crashed Boeing 737 Max Had Airspeed Issues on Last 4 Flights
... ...
With the data recorder in the hands of investigators, the NTSC has recovered about 69 hours of flying data by the crashed jet during its last 19 trips.
...


The lengthy recording time of the FDR is clearly pointing to unresolved issues over several flights.

Regards, Wil Taylor

o Trust - But Verify!
o We believe to be true what we prefer to be true. [Unknown]
o For those who believe, no proof is required; for those who cannot believe, no proof is possible. [variation,Stuart Chase]
o Unfortunately, in science what You 'believe' is irrelevant. ["Orion", Homebuiltairplanes.com forum]
 
Cost is one problem; the other is the design of the protocol itself to ensure that the data doesn't get mangled or dropped along the way to its final destination. CVR is probably way easier to do, given substantially lower data bandwidth required. Assuming the comparable number of channels to be 256 12-bit words per second, that's only about 3.1 kbps, which is less than phone quality audio requires.

There should still be on-board storage as there has been at least two incidents of intentional CFITs, and in one of them, the perpetrator turned off all transmissions from the aircraft.

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert! faq731-376 forum1529 Entire Forum list
 
Once high bandwidth communications become ubiquitous, then this particular application would be amongst the least exciting. i.e. By the time the aircraft fleets are fitted with CVR Out, the passengers would have been already making video calls for years. :)

PS. There are deployable aerofoil FDR/CVR equipped with ELTs. They float. After an incident, they would normally be retrieved almost immediately.
 
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