A method for gathering flight load data for a gas turbine engine includes providing a plurality of blocker doors rotatably mounted to a translating sleeve and a plurality of blocker door islands, each blocker door island disposed between circumferentially adjacent blocker doors of the plurality of blocker doors and mounted to at least one mounting point of the translating sleeve, wherein a blocker door island of the plurality of blocker door islands is a data acquisition unit; and connecting the data acquisition unit to at least one sensor in communication with the translating sleeve.