Extracting measurements from operational flight data using the are example

The landing phase is usually the most critical part of any commercial flight. A significant percentage of incidents and accidents occur during landing. Typical landing incidents include tailstrike, hard landing as well as runway excursion. The maneuver that is executed just before touchdown is referred to as the are, it represents the transition from a stabilized final descend to a reduction of descend rate and finally the touchdown on the runway. A well performed are maneuver is the key to a satisfying landing. However, in order to examine the are from a large number of recorded flights that result from daily airline operations, one has to extract that part from the flight that is recorded continuously and perform so-called measurements, i.e. characteristic values that describe a specific are for each individual flight. This paper will present two methods to detect the initiation of the are maneuver and a comparison of the two based on the results that are obtained. Some characteristic parameters describing the are that can be subsequently extracted are presented.