FAA FLIGHT TEST RISK MANAGEMENT

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FAA FLIGHT TEST RISK MANAGEMENT
Presented to Flight Test Safety Workshop
Melbourne, Florida
By Rod Huete, FAA Test Pilot
John Hed, FAA Flight Test Engineer Date May,
2008
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Outline

• FAA Flight Test Organization/ Mission
• Safety Challenges as Regulatory Agency
• Specific to type of certification activity
• Generic
• Accidents/Incidents
• Flight Test safety / Risk Management Program
• Flight Test Safety Database Demo
• Conclusions

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Organization
Department of Transportation
FAA
Air Traffic
Airports
Aviation Safety
Aircraft Certification Service
Rotorcraft Directorate
Small A/C Directorate
Transport A/C Directorate
Engine/PropellerDirectorate
Regional ACO
Regional ACO
Regional ACO
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Aircraft Certification Service

• The Aircraft Certification Service is the FAA
  organization responsible for
• Certification approval of
• New and modified aircraft produced by U.S.
  Manufacturers (Type Certificates (TC))
• U.S. modifications to aircraft (Supplemental Type
  Certificates (STC))
• Validation of foreign certified aircraft operated
  by U.S. operators
• Continuing airworthiness of
• Aircraft with U.S. TCs
• Aircraft operated by U.S. operators

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Aircraft Certification Office (ACO)Responsibiliti
es

• Flight test evaluation of
• Performance Handling qualities
• Systems performance (e.g. AFCS)
• Aircraft Flight Manual (AFM) procedures
• Flight crew human factors
• Approval of Aircraft Flight Manual (AFM)
• Assist in development of new flight test
  requirements, advisory material and guidance

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TC Projects

• Normally working with well established design and
  testing organizations (at least for the major
  manufacturers)
• Experienced engineering staff in all disciplines
• Excellent knowledge of products
• Sound understanding of flight test requirements
  and advisory material
• Experienced flight test personnel
• Comprehensive procedures for flight testing

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OEMs Flight Testing

• Establishes the limit flight envelope through
  progressive, incremental development
• Specifically assigned project pilots (pilot and
  copilot) thoroughly familiar with test aircraft,
  special limitations and procedures, and status of
  aircraft systems
• Handling pilot can generally concentrate on the
  test
• Copilot can generally concentrate on monitoring
  aircraft flight and system status (in addition to
  ATC, navigation and other aspects)
• Varied level of responsibility accorded to Flight
  Test Engineers/Observers
• Manufacturers testing encompasses most required
  certification tests

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New Aircraft Approvals Safety Concern

• Generally end point with little or no work-up
• Simulators have not always been available to
  support certification programs
• Limited use of telemetry
• FAA pilot not as familiar with aircraft as the
  OEM pilot
• High workload on
• FAA pilot and,
• Manufacturers pilot who has to monitor aircraft
  status, ATC and navigation, as well as test
  progress
• Potential for mishandling at limiting conditions

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STC Projects

• Many display, cockpit or avionics upgrades
• Conversions to glass cockpits
• Enhanced vision
• Synthetic vision
• Electronic flight bag
• Passenger to Cargo conversions
• Passenger/Cargo to firefighting
• Winglets and other drag reduction
• Engine upgrades
• .

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STC Approvals Safety Concern

• Little or no development flight testing
• Applicants tests often not done by experienced
  flight test personnel
• Generally the applicants pilot will not be a
  Test Pilot
• Will usually have a good operational
  understanding of the aircraft but,
• May not understand the need for the test
• May not understand the test
• Can be resentful
• Higher probability of unexpected results during
  FAA certification tests

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Validation Projects

• For all major Transport Category aircraft to be
  operated by U.S. operators, FAA conducts a
  limited flight test assessment to
• Determine compliance with retained/unique FAA
  technical and/or design related operating
  requirements
• Become familiar with the performance, handling
  and operating characteristics
• Obtain sufficient knowledge of aircraft to
  support
• Continuing airworthiness responsibilities
• U.S. modification activity

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Validation Approvals - Safety Concerns

• Low FAA crew proficiency in aircraft type.
• OEM may have very different safety procedures.
• Limited interaction with OEM so crews not
  familiar with each other.
• Often language barriers
• Procedure differences

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Generic Safety Challenges

• Unforeseen event (e.g. independent failure)
• Pilot blunder (e.g. inappropriate control input)
• Pilot misjudgment (e.g. landing rate of descent)
• Loss of situational awareness (e.g. due to
  fixation with test)
• Flight Test Engineer or crew blunder (e.g.
  incorrect airspeeds, incorrect config.)
• Aircraft deficiency (e.g. incomplete or
  misunderstood development tests)
• Continuing tests in adverse atmospheric
  conditions and/or inappropriate hours (e.g. due
  to schedule pressure)

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How We Dealt With These Challenges In The Past

• Safety process non existent as a formal process
• No Flight / Test Safety Officers identified
• Test safety dependent on individual test pilot /
  FTE
• experience or company processes
• Risk assessment / management frequently done real
  time
• No collection / distribution of lessons learned

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How We Now Deal With These Challenges

• Created a formal safety process (FAA Order
  4040.26)
• Flight test safety officers assigned at ACOs
• Formal safety training required
• CRM, Survival, Physiological
• Sharing of safety practices and lessons learned
• Safety meetings
• Event reporting
• Flight test safety database

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Typical FAA Accidents and Incidents
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FAA CERTIFICATION INCIDENT SUMMARY
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FAA Common Threat Areas

• Infant Mortality
• Runway Environment / Obstructions
• Lack of Confirmation of Applicants Test
  performance
• Pre-test Airworthiness Inspection
• (Conformity)

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Current FAA Flight Test safety / Risk Management
Program

• Organizational structure based on system safety
  model
• FAA order 4040.26, Flight Safety Program
• Flight Test Risk Management Process
• Incident Reporting
• Local Quarterly safety meeting
• Flight Test Briefing Guide
• Accident Response Plan

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Current FAA Flight Test safety / Risk Management
Program Cont

• Regulatory requirement for Risk Assessment
• Initial and recurrent safety training
• Flight Test Safety course
• Crew Resource Management (CRM)
• Flight Test Safety Database

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Organizational Structure
Flight Program Executive
Flight Program Oversight Committee (FPOC)
Operations Manual
Flight Program Flight Safety Officer (FPFSO)
Flight Program Manager (FPM)


Local Operations Manual
ACO Flight Test Manager / Flight Program
Coordinator (FPC)
Facility FPC (Optional)
Facility FSO
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FAA Flight Test Risk Management Process

• Risk Assessment required for all tests
• Normally done by development of THAs
• Done by ACO, or Part of acceptable company
  process
• TIA signature authority raised to appropriate
  level

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Incident Reporting/ Database
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Flight Test Safety DatabaseUpdateAn Online
Resource for Flight Test Safety Planning
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Database Background

• Great deal of corporate knowledge out there but
  not documented and thus dies with the owner.
• Flight Testers are spread out all over the
  country. Everyone did safety differently.
• Order 4040.26A required implementation of a risk
  management process that
• Identifies hazards and probabilities
• Identifies/implements mitigating actions
• Estimate and accept risk

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Database Background

• Joined up with NASA to develop an online database
  of flight test safety info.
• NTPS contracted to gather FAA data.
• Retrieve data from authorities and manufacturers
• Consolidate it into master records for each
  test hazard
• Other groups formed to gather military,
  development and other data.
• Icing, High AOA, Propulsion

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Database Status Update

• Substantially complete with FAA Part 23 25 data
  input. Working on Parts 27/29 (Rotary)
• Continuing to gather military and developmental
  data
• Continuous small interface improvements
• NEW Input module now online so you can input
  your own data or suggest edits of existing data.
• Continuing to improve this with offline method
  also

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http//pbma.nasa.gov/ftsdb/Home.aspxOn-line Demo
Flight Test Safety Database
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Flight Test Safety Database Summary

• The matured THA database IS a wide array of test
  safety ideas and suggestions
• But it is NOT an FAA-mandated solution
• And it is NOT an auto-safety planning device
• The matured hazards, causes and mitigations are
  necessarily generic
• Your test will have unique problems and will
  require unique solutions
• The THA database can be an excellent starting
  point

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Conclusion

• As a regulatory Certificating Agency we face many
  flight test challenges
• Past experience has demonstrated that we are
  vulnerable to safety risks/hazards
• We have learned from our mistakes
• We are meeting the challenge by applying proven
  safety practices

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FTSDB Home Page
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FTSDB Login
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FTSDB Main Page
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FTSDB Home Page
Vmca
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FTSDB Results Page
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FTSDB Combined THA
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FTSDB Results Page
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FTSDB Single THA
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FTSDB Update Page
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FTSDB New THA
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FTSDB Single THA
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FTSDB THA Input Wizard
Summary