Flight Data Recorder Mobile

Download this FAA Safety Briefing article, that explains the safety benefits of recording and reviewing your own data. DOWNLOAD

FDR Mobile version 1.11 is available NOW !!

February 8th 2014

NEW FEATURES :

• Speak-to-ME TAR engine !! This new tab is located under the WXR tab. Go to "More" and click the WXR tab.
  • Bring your METARs to life with this new feature. Listen to your METARs as if you were tuning an ATIS or AWOS station, and get the weather information while you are driving to the airport or doing anything else!
• The METARs are sourced directly from the NCAR/FAA weather.aero site.
• To support this feature, a database of more than 35,000 world-wide airports has been added.
• Bug fixes.

Download the new User Guide here.

What is it?

Flight Data Recorder (FDR) is an iPhone / iPad utility application for 'recording' your own data. As its name suggests, it mimics what an aircraft "black box" does, by recording position, altitude and attitude data, along with cockpit voice (cockpit voice recorder, CVR), such that complete information for a flight can be stored. A CVR records the conversation in the cockpit, and radio communications between the crew and air traffic control (ATC), as well as other ambient sounds (cockpit warnings, etc.).

How does it work?

The application uses the GPS and Compass sensors on your device to extract and store the following data: latitude, longitude, true direction, magnetic direction, speed, distance, time, optional points of interest, and a lot of other data.

Recorded data is saved to a CSV file at 2.5 FPS (one point logged every 400 milliseconds) with filenames matching the date and time they were created (i.e. '13-09-15_1530_43.csv' was created on the 15th of September of 2013, at 15:30 and 43 seconds). Recorded audio is saved in a ‘CAF’ file, with the same name as the data file. Files can be sent via email or be retrieved from the device in iTunes, under File Sharing (1.- Open iTunes, 2.- Browse to your device, 3.- Under the APPS tab scroll down to the file sharing area and look at FlightDR Documents).

Approximately 60 minutes of data recording equates to 1.7 MB of data on your device. Including voice recording, that amount is about 7.7 MB. To keep things tidy, it is recommendable to delete files once they have been exported from the device and placed them on a computer.

How do I use it?

Once you have FDR installed on your device, you only need to decide whether you want audio to be recorded as well or not, and click START! It’s that easy! There are a few things you need to know if you want accurate results generated for your data:

• Only use outdoors
• Give your phone a good wave around in the air to ensure the compass configures itself properly.
• Depending on the activity you are performing, the position of the phone is crucial. If you require accurate orientation/axis values (pitch/roll) for flying or snowboarding (spins/rotation), I recommend placing the phone/iPad upright or horizontally, facing the user and in a fixed position (i.e. inside a pocket or bag that won’t move around inside the airplane, or fixed on a mount). For personal use, place the phone upright against your lead hip/waist inside your pocket. Just placing in any of your pockets works fine for everything else except rotation, as it moves around when loose.

FDR records data in the background, so you can use another application while recording.

FDR has an option to start recording when speed is above 15 knots (about 17 mph or 28 km/h), so that the user does not have to be paying attention to the recorder, and can focus on important tasks at hand.