Pilots can now replay their flights right after landing with CEFA AMS

Pilots are now able to view a high-fidelity visualization of their landing, takeoff and other flight moments derived from actual flight recorder data within minutes of landing using a breakthrough aircrew training tool, the CEFA Aviation Mobile Services (CEFA AMS).

A first in the aviation industry, CEFA AMS (www.cefa-aviation.com/ams) now enables enhanced situational and operational awareness for aircrews by delivering feedback right after landing, depicting selected flight segments on a tablet computer secure connection.

"This new capability can transform pilot training," says Dominique Mineo, CEFA Aviation Founder and CEO. "Each flight becomes a training opportunity. CEFA AMS enables the pilot to replay and reflect on events that just happened during the flight. The animation facilitates knowledge exchange between crew members and allows pilots to benchmark against their own performances. Flight animation leads to improved safety and reduces airline cost by making training available anywhere, anytime."

The Japanese call the concept "Furikaeri," or "looking back into one's behaviour." All Nippon Airways (ANA) Group has been trialing CEFA AMS for more than a year with about 3000 pilots, and aircrew feedback is highly positive, especially from First Officers, according to Hideo Morioka, Safety Promotion and Flight Data Analysis, who carried on the project: "ANA envisions a world where each pilot explores safety and improves his or her skills."

Until now, flight data-based visualization or animation has only been available by manually processing flight data recorder (FDR) or quick access recorder (QAR) data through special software, such as CEFA FAS (Flight Animation System). The process can take hours or even days, depending on airline priorities, and only a small percentage of incident-critical flights are usually analyzed. CEFA AMS converts wireless FDR data into a realistic animation within less than 10 minutes after landing. "With CEFA AMS, a pilot can view any flight he flies. Not only the just-completed flight, but other own flights as well for comparison," said Capt. Pierre Wannaz, an Airbus A330 pilot and instructor with SWISS. "Flight data animation also enables crew-centered debriefing based on factual evidence, which leads to better understanding of flight events and their root causes."

The CEFA AMS animation features high-detail cockpit representations of customer-selected avionics and controls such as throttles, as well as high-resolution, real-world terrain and airport databases. The aircrew essentially sees the same view as they did from the aircraft cockpit, together with simultaneous "stealth" views from outside the aircraft, typically a forward-looking view from the tail and a side view. Currently available commercial aircraft types include turboprops like ATR 42/72 and Dash 8 to the newest generation of aircraft like Airbus A320 neo, A350, Bombardier CSeries, Embraer E-Jet E2 and Boeing 737 MAX and 787.

CEFA Aviation has been a pioneer in easy-to-use flight data animation since Dominique Mineo founded the company in 2000. More than 80 major and regional airlines, cargo operators as well as investigative authorities on five continents are using CEFA FAS (Flight Animation System) for pilot training and safety analysis. The company's success is attributable to a passion for aviation and innovation, listening to its clients, and delivering gold-standard support. The CEFA Aviation team is headquartered in the Alsace region of France.