One of the primary, and perhaps most important functions of the flight crew pilot(s) is decision-making. The accurate and timely identification of system malfunctions may often be their greatest challenge aside from completion of the mission itself. Many incidents have gone from manageable to very bad or even tragically castastrophic as a results of a missed (fault) detection or an improperly identified anomaly criticality. To aid in these matters, HUMS (Health Usage Monitoring Systems) at variaous levels of sophisticaiton are being installed as a mateter of "standard" equipment on most modern helicopter platforms. These on-board, in-flight diagnostic and (eventually) prognostic systems work in conjunction with ground-based maintenance teams for purposes of ensuring that each individual helicopter unit is capable of safely completing at least the next mission.
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