Patent ID: 8478477

Claim:
A method of managing maintenance of a helicopter, the helicopter having on board equipment to be maintained, a calculation device having a microcontroller and a storage device for hosting algorithms, a plurality of sensors configured to provide health and use parameter values of the equipment to be maintained, a recommended maintenance program (RMP) defining maintenance deadlines calculated from primary data of design of the equipment to be maintained and of flight testing of the helicopter, the method comprising: defining a dynamic recommended maintenance program for the helicopter by using and storing in the storage device actual utilization data calculated from the health and use parameter values for the helicopter; using the calculation device to recalculate the maintenance deadlines as a function of the actual utilization data; and updating in real time the dynamic recommended maintenance program by determining influential degradation parameters representative of modes of degradation of the equipment to be maintained; wherein the actual utilization data includes five families including load data, lubrication data, environmental data, flight stage data, and experience feedback data; wherein the load data includes torques and moments applied to mechanical elements of the helicopter, the lubrication data includes lubrication of mechanical parts, measurements of a lubricating power of oil and a degree of pollution of oil, the environmental data includes weather, temperatures, pressures, and altitudes, the flight stage data includes stages of flight, aerodynamic forces, and vibration, and the experience feedback data includes a health of another helicopter including the same equipment to be maintained.