Systems and methods for on-demand enabling of display features for an avionic display

A system for on-demand enabling of weather radar features for display in an aircraft, the system comprising:

• a source of aircraft status data for the aircraft;
• a display device operationally coupled to the source of aircraft status data and configured to render an avionic display showing a location and trajectory of the aircraft and to render weather information on the avionic display, in accordance with a weather configuration file stored in memory onboard the aircraft, wherein the configuration file comprises a plurality of display features, each display feature of the plurality of display features being enabled or disabled in an agreement with a subscription service;
• a weather radar system configured to (i) determine convective cell growth from weather radar reflectivity data by calculating vertically-integrated reflectivity (VIR) values for a column of cells associated with a latitude/longitude position at a respective time, (ii) determine that trigger conditions are occurring when a difference between time-sequential VIR values exceed a weather hazard threshold, the feature trigger having a location at the latitude/longitude position, and (iii) generate a feature trigger responsive to determining that trigger conditions are occurring;
• and
• a controller circuit operationally coupled to the source of aircraft status data, the display device, and the weather radar system, the controller circuit configured to:
• determine that a display feature associated with the feature trigger is disabled in the weather configuration file, responsive to the feature trigger;
• generate a notification that the display feature is disabled but available, responsive to determining that the display feature associated with the feature trigger is disabled in the weather configuration file;
• enable the display feature in the weather configuration file;
• and
• generate a fault code in the weather configuration file, the fault code indicating that the display feature was enabled and an aircraft location at which the display feature was enabled.

A method for on-demand enabling of display features for an avionic display in an aircraft while the aircraft is in flight, the method comprising:

• rendering, on a display device, the avionic display showing a location and trajectory of the aircraft, the rendering being in accordance with a configuration file stored in memory onboard the aircraft, wherein the configuration file comprises a plurality of display features, each display feature of the plurality of display features being enabled or disabled in an agreement with a subscription service;
• at a controller circuit,
• receiving a feature trigger;
• determining that a display feature associated with the feature trigger is disabled in the configuration file, responsive to receiving the feature trigger;
• generating a notification that the display feature is disabled but available, responsive to determining that the display feature associated with the feature trigger is disabled in the configuration file;
• receiving a pilot override after generating the notification that the display feature is disabled but available;
• enabling the display feature in the configuration file only upon receiving the pilot override;
• and
• generating a fault code in the configuration file, the fault code indicating that the display feature was enabled and an aircraft location at which the display feature was enabled.