SPECIFICATION OF THE INVENTION

1. Title of the invention

A novel methodology for training the pilot on cockpit controls & display systems using onboard flight profile simulation.

2. Field of Invention

This invention relates to training of pilot on ground by dynamically simulating the aircraft flight profiles using onboard mission computer and cockpit displays. The pilot training involves familiarization with aircraft cockpit control and display systems operation during various flight mission scenarios.

3. Prior art and Draw backs of prior art

In conventional systems without flight profile simulation, the pilot can familiarize with the Man Machine Interface (MMI) of mission avionics system displays only on ground-based simulators. However, the ground-based simulators are only available at limited locations and not at all the places. This makes it difficult for a new pilot to familiarize himself quickly with cockpit controls and displays and various system functionalities.

4. Aim of the Invention

The main objective of this invention is to familiarize and train the pilot on the aircraft cockpit controls, displays and all the system functionalities with various flight mission scenarios on ground. The flight mission scenarios can be predefined scenarios or dynamically created by the pilot. The invention generates a simulated environment on the onboard cockpit displays for different flight operations and enables the pilot to train on the aircraft cockpit itself.

5. Summary of the present invention

The invention presents a method to compute and simulate the aircraft flight profile using onboard mission computer and cockpit displays by means of a simulation module 700 as shown in Figure-1. As part of the simulation module 100, a flight profile module 110 is invented to continuously compute the flight path in terms of aircraft attitude and altitude. The flight path is differentiated into various phases of flight - takeoff, cruising and landing - and the attitude and altitude is computed separately for each phase. A navigation module 120 computes navigation guidance parameters for the current phase of the flight, and provides it to the display generation module 730. The display generation module 730 is responsible for generating the symbols on cockpit displays. The invention enables the pilot to input any flight profile and familiarize with the Man Machine Interface at various phases of the flight. The invention enables to pause and then resume the simulation at any point in the flight profile based on pilot selection.

6. Brief Description of the Drawings

Figure 1 is a block diagram of the Simulation Module for generating the cockpit flight simulation.

Figure 2 illustrates the flow diagram of the simulation module 100.

Figure 3 displays the output of simulation module on HUD display for aircraft navigation mode.

Figure 4 displays the output of simulation module on MFD map display for aircraft navigation mode.

7. Detailed Description of the Invention

In the present invention, when the pilot selects simulation mode on ground, an aircraft trajectory is simulated using onboard computer and cockpit displays based on pilot inputs. The figure 1 illustrates the simulation module 100 - its various internal components and the data flow between them - to generate the simulated environment in the aircraft cockpit. The invention also enables the pilot to pause and then resume the simulation from any point in the flight profile. The simulation module 100 consists of a flight profile module 110, a navigation module 120 and a display generation module 130. The simulation module 100 receives pilot inputs from Pilot Control Panel (PCP) and Hands On Throttle and Stick (HOTAS) and provides display information on cockpit displays like Head Up Display (HUD) and Multi Function Display (MFD). Figure-2 illustrates the block diagram for the simulation module. The flight profile simulation is carried out in 2 modes - SIM1 and SIM2. The pilot selects the simulation mode through the Pilot Control Panel in step 201. In SIM1, the user selects a predefined aircraft trajectory. The flight profile module 110 reads the initial parameters of flight trajectory from the database as shown in step 204. These initial parameters include aircraft present position (Ap, up), destination waypoint co-ordinates (Ad, Ud), indicated air speed (V), wind speed and direction (Ws, Wd), altitude (Hj), pitch (0i), roll (i) and angle of attack (a). The complete aircraft trajectory is divided into several phases - takeoff, cruise and landing. The rate of change of pitch (60/5t), roll (50/6t) and altitude (5H/5t) is predefined based on the phase of the trajectory and is computed in step 206. The flight profile module 110 continuously computes the aircraft pitch, roll and altitude at every 20ms according to the 50/St, 50/5t and 5H/5t values in step 207. In step 208, the computed pitch, roll and altitude are fed to the navigation module 120 which computes the aircraft present position as well as navigation guidance parameters such as distance to go, time to go, desired track angle etc.

The navigation parameters are used to generate the navigation symbols during each phase of the flight and to overlay guidance parameters on map display. The display generation module 130 is responsible for generating the symbol display on HUD and MFD through steps 209 and 210 based on information received from navigation module 720. In SIM2 mode, dynamic simulation of representative flight profile is carried out based on pilot selection. The initial flight trajectory is set to straight and level flight and the pilot edits the aircraft flight trajectory parameters through the Pilot Control Panel. In step 205, the flight profile module 110 receives the following pilot inputs - aircraft present position (Ap, up), destination waypoint co-ordinates (Ad, ud), indicated air speed (V), wind speed and direction (Ws, Wd), initial values of altitude (H), pitch (9j) and roll (/6t), altitude rate (5H/6t), acceleration (5V/5t), limits to pitch (9|jm), roll (Onm), altitude (H|im) and indicated air speed (Viim). The limiting values (Gum, ijm, H|jm, and V|im) are set according to aircraft flight performance ceilings. In step 206, the flight profile module 770 continuously computes the aircraft pitch, roll and altitude according to the user defined 59/5t, 50/6t, 6H/5t, 9|im, Oiim, Hum, and V|im. It 770 also computes the aircraft heading (4^) based on current aircraft co-ordinates and the destination co-ordinates. The aircraft pitch, roll, heading and altitude are then fed to the navigation module 720 which computes the aircraft present position as well as navigation guidance parameters, same as for SIM1 mode. The operation of the navigation module 720 and display generation module 730 is similar to SIM1 mode. The invention allows for pilot to pause and then resume the flight profile simulation. When flight profile module 770 receives pause command from user, it halts the update of the aircraft attitude and altitude parameters. Also, the navigation module 720 does not update the aircraft present position, ensuring the flight is paused. Afterwards, when the simulation is resumed by the pilot, both flight profile module 770 and navigation module 720 restart the computation process from where it had paused.

CLAIMS

We claim

1. A method for training the pilot on cockpit controls and displays by means of dynamic generation of aircraft flight profile on ground for various aircraft mission scenarios. This is carried out through the simulation module using onboard mission computer and cockpit controls and displays.

2. The simulation module, as claimed in Claim-1, continuously computes the flight profile parameters based on predefined flight trajectory or pilot inputs.

3. The method of Claim-1 is further used to compute navigation guidance parameters for the computed flight trajectory.

4. The method of Claim-1 involves display of navigation parameters on the cockpit display systems.