Methods and systems for requesting and retrieving aircraft data during flight of an aircraft

A system, comprising:

• a gateway;
• an aircraft comprising a transceiver;
• a plurality of sub-systems, and an on-board computer being configured to generate a crew alerting system (CAS) message file comprising unprocessed data, wherein the CAS message file automatically indicates that measured parametric data from a sub-system of the aircraft is outside one or more threshold limits and that an abnormal condition has been detected;
• a satellite that is communicatively coupled to the aircraft and the gateway via satellite communication links;
• a ground support network comprising a ground-based computer configured to process the unprocessed data in the CAS message file to generate processed data;
• and
• a computer, coupled to the ground-based computer, that is configured to:
• determine, based on the processed data, relevant parameters that are to be measured and recorded at the aircraft to provide additional parametric data and a duration value for each relevant parameter, wherein each of the relevant parameters correspond to additional parametric data that is needed from the aircraft to identify one or more sources that are causing the abnormal condition and that caused the CAS message file to be generated, wherein each duration value specifies how long parametric data for that particular relevant parameter are to be measured and recorded;
• and
• generate a parameter request message that includes a parameter file that specifies the relevant parameters that are to be measured and recorded at the aircraft;
• and
• communicate the parameter request message to the gateway for transmission to the aircraft over satellite communication links;
• wherein the on-board computer is further configured to:
• after receiving the parameter request message, extract the parameter file from the parameter request message;
• determine the relevant parameters and the corresponding duration values for each of the relevant parameters from the parameter file;
• measure parametric data for each relevant parameter of the parameter file for a corresponding duration value, wherein the measured parametric data for each of the of relevant parameters comprises:
• a data stream for that particular relevant parameter that is measured for a particular corresponding duration value;
• and
• record the measured parametric data in a data file;
• and
• wherein the transceiver is further configured to transmit the data file to the satellite for delivery to the other computer.