USB stick data recording, blackbox-like housing?

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most were open cockpit with easy bailout capability

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Also easy "forcefully ejected from the aircraft" capability. About 90% of the cases of pilots with impaled objects I've come across out of the 1800+ plus I have pathology or other medical records for are in ultralights. There's one sheriff in Tennessee likes to tell that he has an ultralight pilot in his jurisdiction who has been in five crashes that the sheriff is aware of and all of them involved trees. The irony is that the fact that the guy's first name is George.

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If you don't believe me, I can tell you the "rest of the story" offline.

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You know my e-mail.

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Originally Posted by steveinindy

There's also a reason why those [WWI] aircraft had earned the nicknames "meat grinders" or "funeral pyres" among the pilots.

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I don't plan on be shot at by flak or machineguns....and also to include an engine that doesn't throw castor oil and fuel all over itself as part of its design!

Thanks for all the conversation, folks; this has been a great discussion. I won't be putting in a black box on my plane (too expensive), but there's zero reason I can't put a camera on the panel, which I hadn't thought of!

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I don't plan on be shot at by flak or machineguns....and also to include an engine that doesn't throw castor oil and fuel all over itself as part of its design!

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Actually the comment I made was in reference to training crashes.

The USB data recorder is a great idea. To protect it from fire, you need the lightweight and insulating properties if an intumescent coating. This expands with the heat of a fire to form an insulating foam char that is 10 - 20X the original volume and can resist 1500-2000 deg. F. This is the same material that forms the outer coating of a fire sleeve used to protect an aircraft fuel or oil line.

This material is commonly available in "big box" stores as a special type of silicone RTV caulk called a "fire stop" or "fire barrier". It is used to block possible fire spread through wiring channels in buildings. It applies just like regular RTV silicone. Here is how you might use this to protect the USB flash drive / memory stick:
- seal the USB cable to the drive using an automotive high temp silicone to seal for moisture. Then use a stiff acid brush to apply several layers of the fire stop silicone around the flash drive and cable. Coat at least one foot of the cable for heat protection.
- pick a small box as a housing - go for high temp capability, such as steel or stainless steel, but keep it light. Paint the inside of the box with several layers of the firestop silicone. Avoid aluminum due to low melting temp. For extra temp. insurance, center the flash drive in the center of the box and pack it with vitamin gel caps (water). Seal the cable entrance with the firestop.
- Seal the box with the firestop, then paint several layers of the firestop on the outside of the box using the stiff brush. While you are at it, alsp paint several layers of the firestop in a piece of aluminum foil - for your own testing. Let dry and this should be very good protection and also light weight.

Larry, great post! This is how we change the aviation world. Everyone in the certification world laughed at Garmin when they introduced the 430. Look at where they are at now ... and an order of magnitude less expensive. iPad applications might just do that again, too! I'm proud to be a part of this thread.

No pressure, Bob.

Blue on Top,

Thanks Larry,

I had found a reference to this fireproofing material at a UK web site and I wasn't looking forward to having to order it. But it is good to know I should be able to find it at my local hardware store.

I'll put one together and test a USB stick with a temperature probe in ordinary use. If it works for 24 hours in active use while coated, the next step is to monitor the temperature in an ordinary fire in the BBQ without power. The temperature probe can let us know how hot it gets. This is just a 'sanity' test, not meant for any type of certification.

Bob Wilson

Actually knowing the way the FAA guys at Atlantic City love to set stuff on fire, I'm pretty sure if you asked they could talk you through (or provide the technical paperwork) on how to set up a "home game" version of the actual fire exposure certification tests.

I've been turning this over in my head as a broader project - data recording.

Thinking that the product would be aimed at GA/homebuilding, it doesn't need to have the conprehensive data points as in commercial aviation. With that in mind, what should it record?

First blush:

Engine RPM
Oil temp
Oil pressure
Stick and rudder positions*
Mixture control position
Carb temp
Throttle position
Airspeeds - IAS and ground (the latter handled by GPS)
The flight profile could be handled by GPS, I reckon.

I don't know if voice recording is really required; maybe that's because I think it would be very boring to hear me chuckling on beautiful days and growling at a less than perfect touch and go.

Another question is data polling frequency. Maybe every second to save memory space?

* This could be done pretty cheaply and with little weight. It's a three Hall Sensors, and the polling and recording software is used in every decent gaming HOTAS and rudder pedal set.

Hi Frank,

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Originally Posted by Frank Giger

I've been turning this over in my head as a broader project - data recording. . . .

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Let's start a new thread as I have some 'lessons learned' to share from my Prius engineering studies.

Bob Wilson

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Thinking that the product would be aimed at GA/homebuilding, it doesn't need to have the conprehensive data points as in commercial aviation. With that in mind, what should it record?

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Can I request that a few accelerometers be tossed into the mix for the sake of crash survival research? Ideally, :
-At The center of mass of the aircraft
-In the back rest of each of the seats (ideally would be hip height, shoulder height and one in the head rest).

Measuring longitudinal, vertical and lateral accelerations.