Appareo has unveiled a new addition to its line of crash-survivable, remote-mountable, flight data recording modules for rotorcraft and fixed-wing aircraft. The recoverable data module, model 300 (RDM-300) is a small, lightweight, flexible and affordable crash-hardened flight data recorder that was originally developed as a custom solution for a customer, and has now been equipped with an auto-detect feature for ARINC or serial buses, making it easily installed in any type of aircraft.

While there are regulatory requirements for commercial aircraft to be equipped with flight data recorders, there are no equivalent requirements for many smaller aircraft. Even so, aircraft manufacturers and large fleet operators have realised the benefits of recovering flight data for the benefits of helping investigators determine if an incident or accident was caused by an airplane system problem, an external event or pilot error. Historically, this flight data has contributed to airplane system design improvements.

One airframe manufacturer who decided to invest in the benefits of recoverable flight data collaborated with Appareo to design a small and lightweight device that could meet high survivability standards.

“This module is ideal for aircraft that are not required to carry ED-112 compliant, large, heavy data recorders, but rather, for applications where reliable survivability of flight data provides great business and investigative value,” says David Batcheller, president and CEO of Appareo.

The RDM-300 is easy to incorporate into any aircraft, automatically accommodating the aircraft's bus speed, and easily configurable to recording preferences. Once installed, the unit can record more than 500 parameters per second to the non-complicated, solid-state memory within the device. Weighing less than two pounds, the RDM-300 perfectly balances rigorous survivability needs while optimising the size and weight of the product.

Although typically used to collect parametric data from ARINC 429 buses or other serial interfaces, the RDM-300 can also be configured to collect cockpit voice recorder (CVR) or cockpit image data.