Corporate Aviation
Long Range Fuel and Oxygen Planning Product
History
Aeronautical Data Systems was formed many years ago to continue development and marketing of an Oxygen Planning Product (OPP). The OPP is a unique program developed to assist the flight crew in determining whether their proposed flight across the oceanic areas or large precipitous landmasses could be safely flown. It would be disastrous to conduct a flight without due consideration of what the FAA defines as the "Worst Case Scenario". Since that time new developments have evolved from this research and by employing an oxygen management system it will increase the safety and operational efficiency of flight operations in today’s flying environment.
The "Situation"
For the international flight crew a "worst case scenario" is at the Equal Time Point (ETP), where time to return and time to continue flight are at their maximum. At this point the aircraft experiences an engine rotor burst with debris that penetrates the pressure vessel. The crew suddenly has a single engine, depressurized aircraft to get safely home. The most important commodity the crew has is the fuel on board (FOB). Fuel on board becomes the “driver” for this scenario. With more fuel available, a lower altitude can be tolerated, thus less oxygen will be required for the passengers and crew to successfully survive and continue flight to a suitable alternate airport. With less fuel available, the jet aircraft must fly higher to increase the specific range of the aircraft. This situation requires the flight crew to "balance" the available resources to safely and expeditiously complete the flight.
The Solution
The OPP addresses two critical pieces of information (Fuel on board and Oxygen duration) that enable the flight crew to quickly and accurately assess the “Worst Case Scenario”, make their judgment and have the ability to continue monitoring both fuel and oxygen to bring the flight to a successful conclusion. By having such a system available, it is now possible to upload the necessary resources required to make such a flight prior to departure and by doing so ostensibly eliminate this situation.
Utilizing the computer program provides multiple solutions instantly and with greater accuracy and precision. The basic input to solve any of these solutions has been reduced to three simple inputs from the flight deck. The pilot needs only to know:
- How many people are using the system?
- How much fuel is remaining?
- What is my oxygen bottle pressure?
All of this information is tailored to each specific aircraft performance and oxygen design. In addition, therapeutic consumption, regulatory consumption, emergency descent profile consumption and one engine inoperative variables are available, depending on the situation.
This program is not only a preplanning tool but can be used dynamically in flight as well.
By having this type of information available achieves many things especially concerning oxygen management. Safety is always paramount, so in addition to what is always foremost in a flight here are other advantages:
- Increase oxygen ceiling restriction from 10,000’ to 25,000’.
- Less fuel required for the flight plan.
- More fuel available for other considerations (weather, decompression sickness, etc).
- FAR compliance.
- Increase ETOP’s coverage.
- More routing flexibility (Utilize 180 minute ETOP instead of 120 minutes due to less req. fuel at the ETP).
- Prevents unnecessary fuel stop.
- Resolves fuel oxygen/conflicts progressively, quickly and accurately.
- Provides for increased payload.
- Reduces over weight landings.
- Permits departure with less than full oxygen.
- Allows maximum utilization of on board oxygen supply.
- Provides data for partial loss of cabin pressurization.
- Reduces number of alternate airports required.
- Provides consumption data for regulatory, therapeutic and emergency descent requirements.
You can see the advantages of having this information available is priceless. Today’s aircraft can fly to almost any place in the world and so fuel for a normal flight is not an issue. However, without having some type of oxygen management system in place you could be oxygen restricted.
The ability to know before you go removes the guess work and in doing so essentially does away with the worst case scenario, thereby reducing the exposure to a wet foot print. As the pilot you are tasked with safe passage for crew and passenger, employing some type of oxygen management system will certainly assist you in doing so.
I hope that you have found this concept to be technologically enlightening to a point where you will now begin to consider the importance of some type of oxygen management program for your flight department. Thank you for you time and interest in our product.
