Most people have had the misfortune to experience a delayed flight, but you’re likely to have assumed it was down to something a little more serious than a case of bad handwriting.
But even in the 21st century, a quickly scribbled note can still cause havoc. Just ask British Airways, which cites the issue as a common cause of delayed take offs, alongside grease and even intemperate weather.
That’s because up until recently, pilots, engineers and air traffic control still used paper-based systems to communicate aircraft maintenance issues.
The process occurs upon landing, when the pilot files a flight log and report on the aeroplane’s status, which is passed on to engineers, who then solve the problem, or give the aircraft a once-over, while the plane only gets going again once air traffic control gives the okay and a report is filed with them.
But BA was finding that engineers were sometimes finding it hard to read the pilot’s notes, a problem made worse when the paper became soggy in the rain, or smudged with oil from an engineer’s fingers.
BA’s London City Airport-based CityFlyer service made the switch to Panasonic’s Toughbook CF-19 four years ago, but this June introduced the electronics firm’s Toughpad tablet, the FZ-G1, and believes it has made a world of difference.
CityFlyer Line Maintenance Manager Dave Cooper explains the move to the tablet, saying: "We’ve been so successful with the Panasonic product it was a no-brainer to stay with them with the tablet. It’s smaller, lighter – a third of the weight [of the Toughbook].
"There’s front and rear-facing cameras which means we’re able to transmit images back. It’s future proof."
And he says that the issues of hardware needing to deal with the physical, outdoors environment of an airport have been solved with the introduction of the tablet.
"Engineers deal with all different types of oils and some can be quite corrosive. It needed to be robust enough to withstand those things, which is why we went with this rather than an iPad or something similar," he says.
While the Toughbook had improved speeds compared to the paper-based system, it was far less portable than a tablet, while the technology had been available for 10 years, meaning it was time to upgrade, adds Cooper.
CityFlyer bought up to 20 of the tablets for around £2,000 each, providing one for each aircraft plus spares, and of the 18,000 flights so far this year, pilots have reverted to paper flight logs just seven times.
Panasonic’s John Harris says the firm tested beyond what the Toughpad would be expected to endure to ensure its reliability, spending $100,000 on abusing the device by exposing it to extreme temperatures and dropping it from various heights and onto different surfaces.
And he adds that Panasonic is using CityFlyer as a test case, and hopesd to offer the tablet to more airlines:"We’re at the point of talking to a lot of other airlines. Most are in the UK, a mix of regional and business jets at the moment," he says.
Cameron Hood’s company, Nvable, is responsible for the software that enables pilots to send the log to engineers and air traffic control quickly, and reveals that security was a key consideration.
"People sign off with user names and passwords, so that can all be controlled centrally," he explains. "We take a time stamp for sign off so it’s very secure.
There’s a fundamental difference in the visibility and the kind of data available.
"It’s a good solution we have for the device and it allows certain maintenance tasks to be delivered as well as recording information."
As for eliminating human error, the software on the device prevents pilots from entering the wrong data about their particular flight.
Pilot Klaus Egge (pictured) says: "It’s very clever – if I were to make a mistake in it, it would warn me that I’ve entered the wrong flight number or destination. We don’t have any of those trivial problems."
