Passenger boarding bridge stabilizing apparatus and method therefor

A method for stabilizing a passenger boarding bridge, comprising:

• providing a passenger boarding board including a tunnel section having an aircraft-engaging end supported in a height adjustable manner by a wheel carriage including drive wheels and a plurality of adjustable jacks;
• moving the aircraft-engaging end of the passenger boarding bridge into an aligned relationship relative to a doorway of an aircraft;
• detecting automatically the aligned relationship between the aircraft-engaging end of the passenger boarding bridge and the doorway of the aircraft;
• and
• in dependence upon detecting the aligned relationship between the aircraft-engaging end of the passenger boarding bridge and the doorway of the aircraft, actuating automatically each jack of the plurality of adjustable jacks between a retracted condition and an extended condition,
• wherein detecting automatically the aligned relationship between the aircraft-engaging end of the passenger boarding bridge and the doorway of the aircraft comprises making a determination, to within a range of predetermined threshold values, that the aircraft-engaging end of the passenger boarding bridge and the doorway of the aircraft are in the aligned relationship, and,
• wherein the determination is made in dependence upon an operator control panel being one of powered down and disabled.

A method for stabilizing a passenger boarding bridge, comprising:

• providing a passenger boarding bridge including a tunnel section having an aircraft-engaging end supported in a height adjustable manner by a wheel carriage including drive wheels and a plurality of adjustable jacks, each jack of the plurality of adjustable jacks being extendable between a retracted condition and an extended condition selected from a plurality of different predetermined extended conditions;
• performing a movement of the aircraft-engaging end of the passenger boarding bridge along an alignment direction relative to a doorway of an aircraft;
• determining automatically an alignment status of the aircraft-engaging end of the passenger boarding bridge resulting from the movement;
• determining time elapsed since performing the movement;
• comparing the determined time elapsed to threshold values:
• and
• when the determined time elapsed is within a predetermined range of threshold values, selecting a predetermined extended condition from the plurality of different predetermined conditions for extending each jack of the plurality of adjustable jacks such that the drive wheels maintain contact with a around surface that is disposed elevationally below the passenger boarding bridge;
• and
• actuating automatically each jack of the plurality of adjustable jacks between the retracted condition and the selected predetermined extended condition,
• wherein the determined alignment status is indicative of the aircraft-engaging end of the passenger boarding bridge being not-aligned with the doorway.

A method for stabilizing a passenger boarding bridge comprising:

• providing a passenger boarding bridge including a tunnel section having an aircraft-engaging end supported in a height adjustable manner by a wheel carriage including drive wheels and a plurality of adjustable jacks;
• performing a movement of the aircraft-engaging end of the passenger boarding bridge along an alignment direction relative to a doorway of an aircraft;
• determining automatically an alignment status of the aircraft-engaging end of the passenger boarding bridge resulting from the movement;
• and,
• actuating automatically each jack of the plurality of adjustable jacks between a retracted condition and an extended condition, the extended condition selected from a plurality of different predetermined extended conditions and in dependence upon the determined alignment status,
• wherein determining automatically an alignment status comprises detecting an operator control panel being one of powered down and disabled.