Method and system for improving situational awareness of unanticipated yaw on a rotorcraft system
AssigneeHoneywell International Inc.
InventorsRohini Sabnis, Sriram P R, Mohammed Ibrahim Mohideen, Sreekiran Wukkalam Srinivas
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Abstract
A method and system for alerting a pilot to a potential unanticipated LTE with simple intuitive symbology on the cockpit display is provided. The provided method and system evaluates rotorcraft airspeed, wind velocity, wind direction, and rotorcraft height above ground to predict several scenarios for LTE zones. The provided method and system overlays or superimposes simple intuitive symbology on the existing PFD and/or MFD to alert a pilot to a potential LTE.
Claims16
A method for alerting a pilot of a rotorcraft having a tail rotor to conditions sufficient to cause a loss of tail rotor effectiveness (LTE), the method comprising:
- at a processor (i) coupled to a flight management system (FMS), an air data computer (ADC) and a performance database and sensors, and (ii) comprising a weather model module, a ground speed module, a vortex logic module and a memory,
- continually receiving, for the rotorcraft, navigational data, wind velocity and wind direction, rotorcraft status and rotorcraft altitude;
- continually processing the received data;
- determining, with respect to a heading of the rotorcraft, a wind velocity and a wind direction;
- determining, based on a combination of the wind velocity and the wind direction, that the rotorcraft is in a LTE zone, defined as experiencing the conditions sufficient to cause LTE;
- and
- overlaying, on a cockpit display, a visually distinguishable symbol indicative of the wind velocity in the LTE zone and the wind direction in the LTE zone.
A system for alerting a pilot of a rotorcraft having a tail rotor to
- conditions sufficient for a loss of tail rotor effectiveness (LTE), the system comprising:
- an air data computer (ADC) for providing rotorcraft forward airspeed and rotorcraft altitude;
- a performance database for providing rotorcraft data;
- a source of wind conditions data comprising wind velocity and wind direction;
- a display system comprising a cockpit display;
- and
- a processor coupled to the ADC, performance database, source of wind conditions data, and the display system, the processor configured to:
- determine that the rotorcraft is within a LTE zone, defined as operating within the conditions sufficient for a LTE, based on the rotorcraft forward airspeed and the wind conditions,
- determine, with respect to the rotorcraft, a wind velocity and a wind direction, and
- command the display system to overlay, on the cockpit display, a visually distinguishable symbol indicative of the wind velocity and the wind direction.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.