LevelFlight Safety Standard
A new standard in safety and regulatory compliance has emerged in the private jet charter industry thanks to partnership between charter operators and Fly Compliant. At Global Air Charters, we are a long-standing partner in the development of the LevelFlight suite of cloud-based applications. These applications manage operations and compliance, along with enhancing safety.
What Is LevelFlight?
Fly Compliant created LevelFlight.com in 2000 as a first-of-its-kind online regulatory compliance tool. Fly Compliant earned acceptance of LevelFlight as a regulatory compliance system for the following FAA-required functions:
· A025 Electronic Recordkeeping
· Safety Management System (SMS)
· Continuing Analysis Surveillance System
Fly Compliant’s online tools shifted regulatory management of charter flights from outdated paper recordkeeping to digital administration. They provide an automated system of checks and balances that ensures each private jet charter flight complies with regulations. In addition, an automatic risk-assessment tool enhances safety. Before a charter flight is released, LevelFlight verifies several key factors. These include meeting pilot duty times and crew rest requirements, pilot training is current, and the Air Operator Certificate (AOC) is valid.
Real-time Data Verification
Using qualitative and quantitative data collection tools, LevelFlight draws information from across multiple platforms and programs. This data creates an enhanced level of situational awareness that is otherwise unavailable in the charter industry. Gone are the days of pulling outdated information from FAA and insurance databases. LevelFlight uses real-time data collection from a wide range of sources to create objective and accurate flight reports.
Many other companies offer compliance checks. However, LevelFlight is the only safety standard that verifies flight data against both US and global regulations from:
• US Federal Aviation Administration
• European Aviation and Space Agency (EASA)
• Transport Canada
• International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)
LevelFlight provides the highest quality information available to aircraft charter companies, brokers, and passengers.
Automated Risk Assessment
A signature feature of LevelFlight is the Automated Risk Assessment (ARA) system. The ARA reviews all data associated with a private charter and provides an objective safety score based on multiple facets of the flight and crew. For example, the ARA system detects when a crew member has been flying extensively and is at risk for fatigue. Consequently, this information is included in the ARA report.
One of the biggest enhancements over other third-party auditing systems is that the data is real-time. An ARA score is leg-based, not trip-based. In the case of a four-leg trip, what happens on Legs One and Two impacts Leg Three. No other system can offer data that current.
The score enables Global Air Charters to proactively review operations for each flight and make adjustments to enhance safety. Also, it provides an auditing tool that gives you, the private jet charter customer, peace of mind. Upon request, we can explain the meaning behind a charter ARA score.
The ARA Score
In addition to verifying that the aircraft and charter operator are legal and insured,* the score addresses several ancillary factors. For instance, factors known to contribute to accidents and incidents include:
- Weather conditions: The ARA looks at airport weather forecasts at the estimated arrival and departure times
- Runway length and other airport factors
- PIC’s FRAT score: A subjective measure, the Flight Risk Assessment Tool is a series of questions that the pilot in command asks before each flight
- Crew rest, estimated duty day, and training currency
- Crew experience: Each pilot’s total flight time and, more importantly, the quality of flight time, are considered for evaluation:
- Flight time in multi-crew environments
- International flight time
- Experience in the critical phases of flight
- Experience in high-density environments
- Turbine experience
- Total time in type
Additionally, the ARA addresses items such as:
- Recent crew training events
- Experience being paired together
- Experience operating into and out of the planned departure, destination, and alternate airports
- Recency of experience
- Currency of crew training, medicals, and certificates
Furthermore, the ARA has a verification process that allows the end user (private jet charter broker or client) to physically verify that the ARA presented has not been tampered with or manipulated. For example, editing a PDF with Adobe to change flight times.
*The ARA system verifies that the charter plane in the flight release is on the aircraft charter company’s current FAA Operation Specifications (DO85). Secondly, the company has a valid Air Operator Certificate (AOC). Lastly, that the aircraft and aircraft operator’s insurance are current. These three items are accomplished by pulling data from the operator AND pulling the DOT form 4507 from public records.
Ongoing Industry Improvement
Global Air Charters is a member of the Fly Compliant Safety Board. Comprised of aviation and regulatory professionals, the board analyzes identified risks in charter aviation. Safety-related data is assessed and aggregated for use in the ARA System to continually improve the LevelFlight Safety Management System for aircraft charter companies.