General Aviation (GA) accidents constitute most of aviation related accidents. Flight data analysis has helped reduce the accident rate in commercial aviation. Similarly, safety analysis based on flight data can help GA be safer. However, GA aircraft flight data recorders are costly. Low-cost flight recorders are few and rarely used in GA safety analysis due to lack of accuracy compared to certified on-board equipment. In this paper we investigate the feasibility of using a low cost AHRS to detect hazardous states in GA aircraft. We consider the case of roll angles and, using flight data, find that the low-cost device has significant measurement errors. We develop models to correct the roll angle error as well as methods to improve the detection of hazardous roll angles. We observe that the models to improve the roll angle do not improve hazardous state detection. However, redefining the hazardous limit for the low-cost AHRS increases detection probability.
Chakraborty, A., Fala, N., and Marais, K., “Investigation of Feasibility of Using Low-Cost AHRS Devices to Detect General Aviation Hazardous States,” AIAA Aviation Forum, June 2019, https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2019-3444