Data Sharing: The Heartbeat of Safety in the Skies

Flying today is anything but a simple, straightforward path. Pilots have multiple factors to consider for ensuring the safest and most sustainable flight experience. This causes longer preflight preparation times, which can be compounded by outdated systems and manual processes that make it more difficult to do the necessary prep work. That is why more and more pilots are using mobile apps that package preflight information and other key intelligent data analytics. GE Aerospace’s FlightPulse is a good example.

FlightPulse is an app for pilots, informed by pilots, that puts flight data directly in their hands. It tracks and provides data to pilots about their own flight experiences while allowing them to anonymously benchmark their experiences with thousands of other pilots. These insights help pilots fly safer and more sustainably, which is why many airlines and corporate business jet operators have signed up for FlightPulse. Recently, the app surpassed 50,000 active users.

Enhancing Safety in Business Aviation

Historically, FlightPulse was only available in the airline market, but in late 2022, GE began offering this technology to the business aviation industry. Business jet operators now have the same industrialized technology that large airlines are using but tailored to how they fly.

Part of encouraging a safer, more efficient business aviation flying experience involves giving pilots a full “preflight briefing” before their trip. Called Preflight, it is one of the newest features in FlightPulse.

The module helps reduce a pilot’s preflight prep time by determining what safety and other critical data to review before a flight. Additionally, it contains value-added data and insights on safety and fuel economy they wouldn’t necessarily be able to access on their own.

Preflight’s briefing data is derived from over 1,200 aircraft enrolled in GE Aerospace’s C-FOQA (Corporate Flight Operations Quality Assurance) safety program. Even operators who have a small number of aircraft in their fleet can take advantage of Preflight. It gives them access to a data pool the size of a large airline and the ability to understand operations at unfamiliar airports.

Enhancing the Effectiveness of SMS Programs

Overall, Preflight provides key insights to help pilots better prepare for safety issues they might encounter during a flight, helps build a stronger safety culture and enhances the overall Safety Management System (SMS) process.

Along with Preflight, FlightPulse has a robust de-briefing toolset for pilots to assess and benchmark their flight experiences. This includes individual flights and personalized private aggregate statistics that let a pilot see how they operate versus the global fleet, along with 3D flight animations that match a pilot’s flight deck experience. The app also has a Home module, which allows pilots to quickly interact with tailored content when they launch the tool.

FlightPulse is an app more pilots are choosing to access critical safety and sustainability data more readily to elevate their flight experience. This type of app is all about lifting people up and bringing them home safely.