Garmin Updates Its FltPlan SMS With Simplified Reporting Structure

Garmin has announced updates to the FltPlan safety management system (SMS), now including enhanced reports that make it easier for flight crews and ground personnel to report items that add…

Photo: Garmin

Garmin has announced updates to the FltPlan safety management system (SMS), now including enhanced reports that make it easier for flight crews and ground personnel to report items that add risks or hazards. A simplified user interface provides a step-by-step process for collecting essential information and gives safety managers a structured safety-risk-management reporting and decision making platform.

FltPlan SMS now has six categories of risk/hazard reports, including cabin, dispatch, flight crew, ground, maintenance and other reports. The new reporting format makes it easier for flight departments and safety managers to schedule meetings with relevant team members to review reported issues. An improved dashboard more easily searches and filters historical risk/hazard reports to identify trends.

Integration with FltPlan.com enables FltPlan SMS to record the tail number, departure airport, scheduled arrival airport, landing airport, passenger count and more to a pilot’s FltPlan.com account. Pilots can press a dedicated SMS button and transfer this data into a risk/hazard report, which can also be optionally submitted directly to the NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS). FltPlan SMS can also provide compliance verification for operators flying internationally where an SMS is required.

Mark Phelps is a senior editor at AVweb. He is an instrument rated private pilot and former owner of a Grumman American AA1B and a V-tail Bonanza.