Automatic heading control system for tiltrotor aircraft and helicopters

A method for automatically controlling the heading of a rotorcraft, comprising:

• monitoring a lateral control signal of the rotorcraft;
• comparing an absolute value of the lateral control signal to a preset high limit;
• and
• if the absolute value is greater than to the preset high limit:
• (a) calculating a lateral heading command from the lateral control signal that will decrease the absolute value,
• (b) calculating a heading error from a difference between the lateral heading command and a current heading of the rotorcraft,
• (c) disabling a manual heading command, and
• (d) providing the heading error to a flight control system of the rotorcraft to control the heading of the rotorcraft.

A system for automatically controlling the heading of a rotorcraft, comprising:

• a data capture module for monitoring a lateral control signal of the rotorcraft;
• a comparison module that accepts the lateral control signal as input from the data capture module and compares an absolute value of the lateral control signal to a preset high limit;
• and
• a heading control module that
• accepts the lateral control signal as input from the data capture module and a result of the comparison of the absolute value of the lateral control signal to a preset high limit as input from the comparison module,
• calculates a lateral heading command from the lateral control signal that will decrease the absolute value,
• calculates a heading error from a difference between the lateral heading command and a current heading of the rotorcraft,
• disables a manual heading command, and
• provides the heading error to a flight control system of the rotorcraft to control the heading of the rotorcraft, if the result identifies the absolute value as greater than the preset high limit.