Performing Support of Flight Operations

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 such as the execution and control of maintenance, and administration. As a result, you can execute flights, from planning through to technical debriefing. What you can see on this slide are many of the capabilities of support for flight operations.

The name support for flight operations is a little misleading and grown historically. Those processes and functions can be used for other kinds of operations such as small boats in patrol missions, military buses or trucks. SAP offers some configurations here to also adjust the wording to the customers specific requirements (for example the flight order can be renamed to "dispatch order"). This can be found in SPRO beneath Support for Flight Operations.

Support of Flight Operations is aimed at providing the Technical Operations with an environment to plan the dispatch of vehicles (planes, helicopters) into flights (dispatch orders) while documenting the necessary configuration needed.

In the system, a flight maps the logistics properties (dates, crew, and so on) and requirements (authorized configuration, and so on) of a real, planned flight. Flights are used to manage actual flights and the business operations directly related to them. The units technically responsible can use a comparison of the authorized and actual configuration in the flight to create the required authorized configuration.

Users who create and edit flights can be members of an operational control team. The technical group is responsible for detailed

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.

To execute a specific mission the vehicle needs to be in a specific configuration. Within air task orders there is defined a required setup configuration for the flight. The technician transfers the vehicle from its standard configuration into the required setup configuration. The standard configuration of the vehicle is displayed at the master equipment, the expected status for the flight is displayed in the flight.

Allowed configurations are defined for each WS/ Model ID and can be selected from a shortlist both in a flight order and in the Master Equipment data.

Controlled usage rate provides:

• a holistic view of all maintenance plans of weapon system structure
• next due date considering all maintenance plans of the structure
• information of the master equipment of the structure including usage the estimated usage rate
• calculation of optimal usage to reach the expected due date

Usage example:

Three aircraft are shown in the example. They are uniquely identified by their ID (1201, 1202, 1203). In addition to the operational and technical status, the authorized and actual usage rate and other important information is given, providing the user with a comprehensive overview.

For each flight, the flying hours of an aircraft are determined in a measurement reading and is entered for the relevant measuring point in the master equipment. After a certain period, an inspection is carried out at a work center or some maintenance facility.

The estimated usage rate is defined by maintenance planners at the master equipment level and should not be exceeded by far because otherwise the maximum flying hours of an aircraft may be reached long before the inspection date and the work center may not have capacity to process this early inspection. The consequence would be, that the aircraft cannot be used for flight operations and just waits for its time slot at the maintenance facility.

If the usage rate is undercut, the planned maintenance slot is met prior to the scheduled maintenance period. So the best case is that the estimated usage rate is hit exactly so there is no waiting time in which the aircraft is unused and there are no remaining flight hours which expire.

The application is also able to create a graph that provides the user with direct insight into previously defined measuring point counters. In this case, the flight hours of the three aircraft.

The controlled usage rate application has been developed in the process of support of flight operations. It is important to say here that not the app is also used in other areas.

For controlled usage rate three selection options can be configured

• Selection of all maintenance plans of the structure to provide a holistic view of all planned maintenance activities
• Selection of the next due date and due cycle per measurement characteristic to support the selection of weapon systems for next upcoming operational activities, for example, flights
• Selection of the next due date or cycle to easily display the next upcoming maintenance activity

With additional selection criteria for maintenance plans and measurement points the displayed data can be tailored to the required information

Information prior to the flight is given by the technical control. The figure illustrates the capabilities of this tool.

Information prior to the flight is given by the technical control. The figure illustrates the capabilities of this tool.

This example shows the Flight Overview App in the SAP system. The first column contains the Flight Orders. Specific aircraft are assigned to these Flight Orders, which can be uniquely identified by their Tail ID and the Weapon System ID. The information seen in the example is selected by an appropriate filter. Other information can also be displayed.

This example shows the Flight Overview App in the SAP system. The first column contains the Flight Orders. Specific aircraft are assigned to these Flight Orders, which can be uniquely identified by their Tail ID and the Weapon System ID. The information seen in the example is selected by an appropriate filter. Other information can also be displayed.

• Column 1 (Flight order): Contains all information about the flight.
• Column 2 (Tail Number): Identifies the corresponding aircraft.
• Column 3 (Authorized Configuration Code) and Column 4 (Actual Configuration Code): The two codes describe the authorized and the actual configuration of the aircraft. Each code here represents a different configuration.
• Column 4 (Flight Status): Describes for example if the aircraft is Ready for take-off (RTAK) or Airborne (AIRB).
• Column 5 (Mission): Describes which mission is assigned to the flight order → Search and Destroy (S&D), Search and Observe (S&O) or Search and Rescue (S&R).
• Column 6 (Technical status) and Column 7 (Operational Status).

The figure illustrates the functions of the technical control after the flight.