Describing Support of Flight Operations Scenarios

The Support for Flight Operations area supports processes carried out by airborne units in the domestic base, operations, and exercises. This includes the planning, control, and coordination of flight operations, the execution and control of maintenance, and administration. As a result, you can execute flights from planning through to technical debriefing.

The following functions are available in the area of Support for Flight Operations:

• The flight is the central instrument for organizing and executing flight operations. In this context, a flight is a special type of maintenance order, which maps the logistics properties (dates, crew, and so on) and requirements (such as authorized configuration) of a planned flight in the real world.

• Users from operational control are responsible for the rough planning and execution of flights.

• The configuration describes the technical structure, the loading state, and the equipment of a technical object (for example, a weapon system). A comparison between the actual and authorized configuration in the flight enables you to trigger processes for equipping or changing the technical object.

• The configuration is represented in the form of a configuration code and characteristic value assignment in the system.

• The technical status represents the technical state of an aircraft from a maintenance point of view.

• The operational status represents the suitability of an aircraft for operations from the point of view of operational control.

• The status board provides an overview of the current technical situation, which affects the operation, of the aircraft itself, the auxiliary materials needed to run the aircraft, and other operation-relevant equipment.

• In the Support for Flight Operations area, an aircraft is mapped as the master equipment. The master equipment contains master data and relationships that are relevant for notification and order processing. It is used as a reference object in flights and notifications. The master equipment is either assigned to the top-level functional location or is at the top of an equipment hierarchy.

• For flight planning, the flight plan can be used to display all flights in a particular period in table form. The flight plan is a chronological list of the flights that exist in the system for the specified period.

• In the Controlled Usage Rate application, you can select particular aircraft with their maintenance tasks and display the resulting information in table form. It is also possible to format and evaluate the data graphically in the form of a diagram.

• You use the Enter Aircraft Accident application to document aircraft accidents with all the relevant aircraft data.

The Line Maintenance processes in Defense and Security provide support for both Technical Operations and Maintenance Groups in the Flying Wings.

In the system, a flight maps the logistics properties (dates, crew, and so on) and requirements (required configuration, mission hours, etc) of a real, planned flight. Flights are used to manage actual flights and the business operations directly related to them. The Technical Operations units can use a comparison of the authorized and actual configuration in the flight to create the required authorized configuration and to select an aircraft requiring the least effort to reconfigure. Users who create and edit flights (requirements) can be members of an operational control team. The technical operations group is responsible for detailed planning. Performance of Maintenance, executing planned and unplanned repairs and confirmation of the operations can be executed by the Maintenance Group.

The Technical Operations / Technical Control personnel are responsible to receive and represent the flight requirements from the Tactic level. It also selects a matching aircraft to perform the flight, taking into account both operational and technical concerns. Their responsibility includes leveling the demand for maintenance capacities in order to increase the amount of operationally ready aircrafts at any time. When the tail number is selected and assigned to the flight, their responsibilities include scheduling of preflight activities such as inspections, reconfiguring, refueling, and installation of weapons, which are performed by the maintenance personnel.

Following the Flight completion, the Flight Order is used by the maintenance personnel to perform post flight inspection and debriefing. Counters and measurements are used to record performance-relevant information collected during the flight. Operator complaints are recorded as Maintenance Notifications, some of them requiring more specific maintenance thus creating maintenance orders. The Flight Order can also act as a cost collector.