Application of Principles, Processes and Technologies to Design and Develop the SkyFlight Risk Assessment

Abstract

The success of the flight mission is closely related to a wide set of factors that must be taken into consideration. Combining all these elements together, the risk associated to the flight can raise significantly, eventually resulting in a situation in which the flight should be cancelled, unless some mitigation of the risk factors are applied. The aim is the understanding of the expectable human abilities and limitations, in correlation with the aircraft status and all the external elements related to the flight. Following the guidance contained in Ref.1, this knowledge has being applied in the definition of a standardize approach for the design of the risk assessment procedures and software requirements. For the safety of the flight, it is essential that the pilot is able to discern in advance between a low and a high risk flight. With a Flight Risk Analysis Tool (FRAT) the pilot can proactively identify the hazard with a visual representation of the risk, applying an evaluation process and risk mitigation strategies, as described in Ref. 2. Moreover to better support this analysis the tool shall be enough complex to consider all aspects, but at the same time, easy to use and simply accessible (i.e. usable by an application installed on the portable device). SkyFlight has been developed to support the flight planning activities for the rotorcraft mission, being the optimal offaircraft mean to carry out the evaluation of the flight, ensuring a thorough Safety Assessment. Pilots have SkyFlight application installed on their portable devices to access the service. As presented in Ref.3, SkyFlight gives to the Pilot a deep understanding of the current situation and the involved dynamics, to anticipate changes and future developments, and to clearly understand the consequences related to the flight. The features are designed to positively increase the Pilot Situational Awareness and reduce mission risks. The Safety is spread within all functionalities, starting from simple and common concepts, to a finer level with a deep performance calculations and what-if analysis. To further increase the safety, the latest developed functionality is the Flight Risk Assessment, which has been developed following the EASA and FAA standards, discussed in Ref. 4 and 5, and embedding the EHEST pre-departure Risk Assessment Checklist, provided in Ref. 5. The predefined set of checklist is available to support different types of flight (Training, HEMS, passenger, etc.) and each list is based on the PAVE (Pilot, Aircraft, Environment, External pressure) areas. In addition to the pre-departure Checklists, also In-flight and Post-flight Checklists have been shaped, following the approach discussed in Ref. 6. Through SkyFlight the pilot is able to fill the Risk Assessment Checklist, inserting mitigations where applicable and view the total score. The filled checklist can be saved and shared. It is also possible to export them in a pdf format and to send automatically via email to one or more email addresses. In addition to this, which reflects the state of the art for FRAT, some other peculiar features have been designed. Indeed, to better support the different rotorcraft missions and to meet the process of each operator, the Risk Assessment Checklists will be completely customized by the company safety manager. The functionalities have then being further enhanced with software developments to add value to the tool with both small and big features. For example, the order of the multiple choice answers changes every time the pilot access to the checklist, to guide her/him to read carefully the answers before the selection. More complex functionalities have been inserted to connect the flight planned with SkyFlight to the hazard evaluation, showing the weather data and all the notifications associated to the flight (NOTAMs, Warning/restrictive Airspaces infringements …). AW SkyFlight application can be installed on personal portable devices and the Flight Risk Assessment functionality can be used for free, to let every pilot from the general aviation to access to the safety enhancements above described. The FRAT capabilities, usability and utility have been then tested with the Leonardo Helicopters Division pilots as well as a set of specific customers pilots as representatives of the different types of operations (in the Executive and Private transport, Medical and Rescue services, Offshore operations, Security services and Utility).