System and method to automatically construct a flight plan from a data set for an aerial vehicle

A processor-implemented method in flight deck equipment for automatically constructing a flight plan for an aerial vehicle that aligns with a boundary line using information from a geographical database, the method comprising:

• automatically selecting a set of geographical (geo) coordinate waypoints along a boundary line using waypoints from the geographical database responsive to flight crew input;
• refining the set of geo coordinate waypoints using a calculated turn initiation distance (TID) and a turn completion distance (TCD) for every waypoint;
• further refining the refined set of geo coordinate waypoints based on the course change between waypoints;
• generating a set of courses and distances between waypoints through computing, for each set of two consecutive waypoints in the further refined set of geo coordinate waypoints, the course and distance between the two consecutive waypoints;
• and
• constructing the flight plan based on the waypoints in the further refined set of geo coordinate waypoints and the set of courses and distances between waypoints;
• wherein the flight plan is flown by the aerial vehicle.

Non-transitory computer readable media encoded with programming instructions configurable to cause a processor in flight deck equipment to perform a method, the method comprising:

• automatically selecting a set of geographical (geo) coordinate waypoints along a boundary line using waypoints from the geographical database responsive to flight crew input;
• refining the set of geo coordinate waypoints using a calculated turn initiation distance (TID) and a turn completion distance (TCD) for every waypoint;
• further refining the refined set of geo coordinate waypoints based on the course change between waypoints;
• generating a set of courses and distances between waypoints through computing, for each set of two consecutive waypoints in the further refined set of geo coordinate waypoints, the course and distance between the two consecutive waypoints;
• and
• constructing the flight plan based on the waypoints in the further refined set of geo coordinate waypoints and the set of courses and distances between waypoints;
• wherein the flight plan is flown by the aerial vehicle.