Electric flight control system and method for an aircraft

A method for controlling the flight of an aircraft, comprising:

• providing at least one mobile control surface configured to be deflected as a function of deflection commands received;
• providing at least one control stick configured to be actuated manually by a pilot of the aircraft, a position of the control stick generating first guidance commands representative of the position;
• providing an automatic piloting device configured to automatically generate second guidance commands;
• providing at least one flight control computer configured to automatically compute control surface deflection commands, with the aid of an integrated computation unit which contains piloting laws, the integrated computation unit using guidance commands to compute the control surface deflection commands, the guidance commands corresponding to the first guidance commands during manual piloting of the aircraft and to the second guidance commands during automatic piloting of the aircraft, the flight control computer comprising at least one flight domain protection module for protecting a flight domain of the aircraft defining a protection as a function of a control stick position received during manual piloting, the protection module being able to limit the deflection command transmitted to the control surface;
• monitoring a type of piloting implemented by a flight control system to be able to automatically detect automatic piloting of the aircraft with the aid of the automatic piloting device;
• automatically transmitting to the flight domain protection module, upon the detection of automatic piloting, a predetermined auxiliary position, representing a control stick position equivalent, the flight domain protection module using the auxiliary position as a control stick position to implement the protection during the automatic piloting;
• and
• varying the auxiliary position as a function of the protection considered based on a guidance mode of the automatic piloting device.

An aircraft having an electric flight control system for the aircraft, the system comprising:

• at least one mobile control surface configured to be deflected as a function of deflection commands received;
• at least one control stick configured to be actuated manually by a pilot of the aircraft, a position of the control stick generating first guidance commands representative of the position;
• an automatic piloting device configured to automatically generate second guidance commands;
• and
• at least one flight control computer configured to automatically compute control surface deflection commands, with an aid of an integrated computation unit which contains piloting laws, the integrated computation unit using guidance commands to compute the control surface deflection commands, the guidance commands corresponding to the first guidance commands during manual piloting of the aircraft and to the second guidance commands during automatic piloting of the aircraft, the flight control computer comprising at least one flight domain protection module for protecting a flight domain of the aircraft defining a protection as a function of a control stick position received during manual piloting, the protection module being able to limit the deflection command transmitted to the control surface,
• wherein the flight control system further includes:
• a first detection element configured to automatically detect automatic piloting of the aircraft with the aid of the automatic piloting device;
• and
• an auxiliary element configured to automatically transmit to the flight domain protection module, upon the detection of automatic piloting, a predetermined auxiliary position, representing a control stick position equivalent, the flight domain protection module using the auxiliary position as a control stick position to implement the protection during the automatic piloting,
• wherein the auxiliary position varies as a function of the protection considered based on a guidance mode of the automatic piloting device.