How long do QAR's record for?

[73AIRBUS73]

Do they record in loop or do they record till a tape fills or do they record to hard drive for a long time?

Tx

[spannersatcx]

Modern one's are solid state, (bit like a flash drive) and can take a week or so to fill up.

[Mr.Brown]

Others are set up via satellite and will download after each flight automatically

[frontlefthamster]

Oh dear, what have you done?

[73AIRBUS73]

Ty, what about older types how do they work?

[Swedish Steve]

what about older types how do they work?

Older ones were like a tape recorder. They fill up the tape until it is full then stop. We change them every Daily check.
But be warned, BA has recently changed all the tape type for solid state, except the 5 A320-211. Perhaps others have done the same.

[reynoldsno1]

ISTR the older ones ran for 13 hours max. - but it may be my 'magination....

[Swedish Steve]

ISTR the older ones ran for 13 hours max. - but it may be my 'magination...

That sounds about right. They are only running with engines on and last us about two days of short haul flights.

[loveGSM]

In Airone:
- Airbus fleet has satellite datalink wich downloads data after every flight.
- Boeing Fleet has MiniQuar (solid state) with 800 hrs of recording.

[NSEU]

The time would be dependant on the quantity of information recorded. QAR's are not necessarily set up to record continuous data, but are switched on by a manual or software command during critical flight phases.

There are a number of different types. The earlier ones have large magnetic tape metal cassettes (which we replace after every flight). The Optical or OQARs have CD type discs in square plastic cases (we usually replace these after 2~3 days, but usually last much longer). Then there are the PCMCIA(?) type (not sure how long these last)... and there are QARs which just send data via small antennae mounted on the front of the unit (just don't ask me how the signal gets through the shielding of the fuselage :P).

Regards.
NSEU