Extracting measurements from operational flight data using the flare example

The landing phase is usually the most critical part of any commercial flight. A significant percentage of incidents and accidents occur during landing. Typical landing incidents include tailstrike, hard landing as well as runway excursion. The maneuver that is executed just before touchdown is referred to as the flare, it represents the transition from a stabilized final descend to a reduction of descend rate and finally the touchdown on the runway. A well performed flare maneuver is the key to a satisfying landing. However, in order to examine the flare from a large number of recorded flights that result from daily airline operations, one has to extract that part from the flight that is recorded continuously and perform so-called measurements, i.e. characteristic values that describe a specific flare for each individual flight. This paper will present two methods to detect the initiation of the flare maneuver and a comparison of the two based on the results that are obtained. Some characteristic parameters describing the flare that can be subsequently extracted are presented.     «

The landing phase is usually the most critical part of any commercial flight. A significant percentage of incidents and accidents occur during landing. Typical landing incidents include tailstrike, hard landing as well as runway excursion. The maneuver that is executed just before touchdown is referred to as the flare, it represents the transition from a stabilized final descend to a reduction of descend rate and finally the touchdown on the runway. A well performed flare maneuver is the key to...     »