Finding Answers

Called Eye in the Sky, it will be launched in the first half of this year, initially in Australia and the United States at a cost of around $NZ4,400 (AUD$4,053) per unit, though Patterson says there will be an introductory offer.

She dearly wishes the device, that is little bigger than her hand, wasn’t a necessary evil but she is pragmatic even if it was born out of personal Heartbreak.

If it hadn’t been for the death of her 18 year-old son, James Patterson Gardener and 42 year-old Wanaka pilot, Stephen Combe when a Robinson R44 helicopter broke up in the Lochy River Basin, northwest of Queenstown in 2015, Eye in the Sky might have been a pipe dream.

“It’s a little bit like putting the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff, but since we’ve developed it to give answers on this particular aircraft there is a lot more positive things that have come out of it,” Patterson says.

She has been involved in flight training for many years and believes light aircraft and helicopters will benefit greatly from the recording system as it not only finds causes of air accidents in small aircraft, but it is also a valuable tool for aviation safety and education.

“It can tell engineers, for instance, about the noise they can hear in an aircraft on shutdown. If a pilot has a warmer start than anticipated it would be good to be able to have a picture of it,” she says.

“The actual benefits are enhancing aviation and raising the safety bar as a whole.

“Once you have a breakup of a helicopter our device will be able to prove the reason why. That’s why we put the benefit of the identifying cause of accidents and reoccurrence at the bottom of the list of benefits.

“If a pilot is aware he has a flight data recorder in his aircraft it may mean that he flies slightly higher or adheres to the rules slightly more. It’s a consideration he has to make if he is going to fly low or possibly break a Rule.”

After her son’s accident New Zealand’s 80 Robinson R44s were grounded because a portion of the blade was found a distance from the aircraft. The ban was lifted a few days later after blade disintegration was deemed a consequence, not a cause of the accident.

The New Zealand Transport Air Investigation Commission (TAIC) concluded the crash was due to mast bumping – where the inner part of the blade bumps the mast, be it as a result of turbulence, stalling or for another Reason.

There was no conclusive proof this was the cause and Patterson is not Convinced.

“We are yet to establish that cause in our own mind and we are having some second tests done on the blade,” she says.

“As an aviator of some 45 years I believed that if an aircraft has a problem and a pilot puts in a control that will make it catastrophic and the aircraft won’t return to normal flight mode then it shouldn’t be certified to Fly.

“The implications are [from the crash] that a control input was put into the aircraft, which could have resulted in this catastrophic failure.

“The bottom line is that aircraft do not break up in flight and this helicopter broke up in flight and they continue to do so,” says Patterson, citing 147 Robinson R44 aircraft accidents since her son’s death with around 23 having unexplained Breakups.

‘Our device will be able to prove the reason why.’ LOUISA PATTERSON

She says Robinson was positive about Eye in the Sky and was talking about developing its own version or joining forces with her company.

“They are encouraging their use but I am not sure about their theory as they feel the accident was pilot input. We will find out unfortunately.”

Foundation

On her wrist Patterson wears a blue band inscribed in white in Ancient Greek, which translated to English says, “ever to excel”.

It is a daily and poignant reminder of her son who was due to take up residence at St Andrews College at Sydney University to study engineering two days after that fateful Flight.

The phrase is also the motto of the James PG Foundation Patterson created in her son’s memory.

Profits from the sale of the Eye in the Sky will go to the foundation to enable youth with the potential to excel in their chosen field to attend Sydney University as James had planned to do.

The foundation was launched recently with income from other areas of the business.

Patterson says it will open doors to young people of all levels who are trying to reach their full potential, whether it be working in the aviation industry or where someone requires endorsement or sponsorship in a particular company.

“Through our contacts we will assist youth whether it be financial, philanthropic, or beneficial.”

Development

The TAIC report into the R44 accident suggested it would be a good idea for cameras to be installed in small Aircraft.

But by the time that report came out Patterson was well into developing Eye in the Sky.

“Quite soon after James and Steve’s death it became obvious that if we had had an apparatus in the aircraft it would have answered all the questions, in particular being able to look at the controls where the pilots’ inputs are,” she says.

“We began working with the authorities on how we were going to make this work.

The first consideration was getting a supplementary type certificate (STC) to allow the device to be fitted in Aircraft.

Over the Top’s pilot and product developer, Brad Collier, says the STC process is expensive and technical. “We’ve employed a lot of help to assist us getting this civil aviation (NZ CAA) authorisation.”

It is now getting authorisation in other countries.

Black boxes (actually aviation safety orange), housed in the tail of large aircraft record cockpit instruments and conversations between the pilot and co-pilot but they do not have Cameras.

Patterson describes Eye in the Sky as a small, technically-advanced version of the large black box in that it has both audio and video components. “In the past few years cameras have become more prominent in one’s life whether you are in a taxi or a lift or anywhere really.”

One chap with 80 aircraft wanted them for his entire fleet. LOUISA PATTERSON

“We’re taking this way beyond the traditional idea of a black box.”

The device was originally black, but following feedback from countries such as Papua New Guinea about regulatory colours for aviation it was changed recently to orange.

Heli-Expo

Patterson and Collier introduced Eye in the Sky to the industry at the helicopter industry’s largest event, the Hai Heli-Expo in Dallas last year.

“We went there to gauge interest and promote the product and got a lot of positive feedback that has helped shape the final version that we have today,” Patterson says.

“One chap with 80 aircraft on the east coast of America wanted them for his entire fleet. He told us a picture is worth a thousand words, but a video is Priceless.”

Patterson and Collier will be back at the heli-expo in Las Vegas in March, followed by the Australian Helicopter Industry Association’s Rotortech expo on the Sunshine Coast in May.

“Potentially the first market is helicopters, then planes, Patterson says.

“But there is potential for all sorts of things from engineering to training incidents and complaints.

Legally speaking

Over the Top uses America’s Rugged Video unit in its helicopters to showcase customers inside and outside the helicopter and at the end of the trip they are given the footage on a USB stick.

Patterson says Eye in the Sky is not designed for that sort of output. Secured high in the cockpit behind the front two people it films in high definition video the control panel and the control inputs so it can’t take footage of outside those parameters that might threaten breaches of Privacy.

“You won’t even necessarily get a view out the front of the helicopter,” Collier says.

Because the STC designates the unit as a flight data recorder it would be available to air accident investigators, but like the large black box, not to the courts as evidence in a Prosecution.

“That in itself encourages people to install it because it is there for safety not for prosecution purposes,” Patterson says.

But she says if there were a situation where a company was thought to be breaking some rules it wouldn’t stop Civil Aviation looking at the footage with the onus on the operator to provide it, not the pilot.

Technicalities

Patterson has worked with New Zealand, American and Chinese companies and has visited China and the US in her journey to get the final product to assembly stage. She declined to reveal who they are because it was propriety information, except to say they were in the high definition video field, had expertise for the required submersible detection and metallurgic experts helped with the case.

The battery runs off the helicopter’s power when it is turned on and goes off when the helicopter engine is turned off.

In the event of electrical failure the battery will run for a certain period before it stops recording over an SD card in the unit. Depending on the size of the SD card it will run for up to 60 hours.

“Eye in the Sky records ambient audio as it has its own microphone so it will pick up any noise from the engine. It is also plumbed in directly to the pilot’s aviation audio panel so anything the pilot hears and says, whether it be from the cockpit or the radio call, is also captured on a separate channel” Collier says.

If, for example, there was an incident involving air traffic control it would pick up something a pilot might be saying to another pilot and what air traffic control might be saying to that aircraft.

“This obviously has benefits in post-incident analysis, Patterson says. The casing is made of high grade metal to a level where data could still be taken off a card if the unit was involved in a fire.

Patterson and Collier met with representatives of a company recently that says it can make a casing for the unit that will withstand very high temperatures. It will be incorporated into a later batch and provide an option to have the fireproof casing go around the present casing.

As part of the STC process the unit must also pass an audio interference analysis check, an electrical load analysis check and electronic engine control Approval.

All of the mounts are load certified and tested. The mounting and wiring for the aircraft comes with the package and each unit is part and serial numbered. It also comes with an SD card and a special tool to remove the unit’s cover, making it tamper-proof.

To market

Collier says while flight data recorders have been around for a long time they are expensive and bulky and it’s taken a while for some of those ideas to filter down to light aircraft.

He also suspects some people flying helicopters and recreational aircraft might not have liked the idea of being accountable for flying low on occasions when they shouldn’t have been.

“I think we are the only one doing it cost-effectively,” Patterson says.

“We will have them to market within the first half of this year but we’ll take orders earlier than that. We are just waiting on some paperwork from various testing people.”

She won’t make a forecast on potential sales. “It depends on where they go, what they put them in and what the authorities say.”

Wearing a tourism hat she says can also say to the major suppliers of her tourism clients that because her company has Eye in the Sky in its helicopters they should mandate that they be fitted to other aircraft they supply tourists to as well.

The final prototype came back from the US recently after testing revealed anomalies with two audio channels, but with these sorted the green light is fast approaching.

“If it takes off I think the foundation would benefit immensely and a lot of young people in New Zealand and Australia will reap the Benefit.”

“I feel personally that if we sold one unit and it was in the right aircraft then I would have done my bit for aviation and particularly, in honour of my son.”

Patterson says the foundation is pretty much her long-term project.