IMS Flight Deck has worked with Horizon Air for the past few years to develop a fully capable EFB system solution. The EFB is connected to weather receivers and antennae that stream real- time graphical weather to improve flight planning, reduce fuel wasted from extended detour routes consumption by optimizing diversions around weather and improve safety from increased situational awareness, such as displayed turbulence and lightning strike information. An Iridium satellite system is connected to the EFB to provide real-time voice and data communications, both on the ground and in the air. The ability to send messages in flight between dispatch and crew helps to reduce delays and ground turn time. The ability to place a voice phone call from the EFB directly to dispatch, can quickly route call to maintenance or Medlink (need to add trademark symbol here) for real-time trouble shooting and advanced notifications and reduced ground repair time. The automated EFB and satcom data link coupled with automated aircraft discrete generates fight summary information that is automatically routed to the airline operations ACARS servers. The real-time data collection improves flight planning for changes required due to weather and maintenance delays, as well as improving FAA compliance for crew duty time and tracking special operations such as RNP AR approach operations.
Horizon is actively deploying this system and anticipates ROI in one year from cost savings.
Discussions have already started for Phase 2 development that includes ground infrastructure for further flight planning automation and a truly paperless flight deck with automatic wireless distribution and configuration/compliance control with Flightline Ground System (FGS). This system will automatically distribute electronic documents to EFBs through a wireless infrastructure and manage document configuration control and pilot compliance.