Comments

I've read a number of accident reports where there simply wasn't enough information to figure out what happened. And then there is the student pilot / instructor loop - analyzing the student's performance during solo time. And finally, just the ability to better and proactively manage my aircraft's maintenance. Oh, don't forget managing the cost of flying. The concept of a "black box" which could provide the basis for all of these is a "good idea" - yet I agree with the respondents who are saying "What, let the government have access? What brownies have you been eating for lunch???!!!" Technology has reached the point where we can collect data from our various boxes (e.g. my Garmin GNS-530W / JPI EDM-800 / Shaddin ADC-200) and stream the data in near real time to someone. Depending on the service agreement, this might be nothing more then a data warehouse, flight modeling service, or an aircraft maintenance analysis service. It might even be a service endorsed by my insurance underwriter (use our flight analytics service and receive a 5% policy discount). My point simply being: there are a number of great business opportunities which benefit the GA flying community - and they don't involve plugging Uncle Sam into the loop to do it. While the NTSB and insurance industry most likely would demand access to data in the case of an accident, the rest of the time the operator should have control of the data and its use.