Vaughn College

Of Aeronautics & Technology

&
SNIST
Aircraft Navigation System
(AVT-235)

Prof. Caleb C Chidebell

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 Vaughn College of Aeronautics & Technology

General Information

• Prerequisites :
– N/A
• Co-requisites:
– N/A
• Text Book:
– Aircraft Instruments and Integrated Systems, by EHJ Pallet
• Other Resources:
– Extracts from the Falcon 2000 Avionics System
– Extracts from the SAAB 2000 Avionics System
– Other references will be provided during the course of the program.
• Other Requisites
– Student are expected to be prepared for every lecture session and in class
participation is highly recommended. For out of hour questions please forward all
inquiries to: ccchidebe@live.com
– Calculus usage will be minimal and primarily for informational purposes.

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Lectures

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Topics of Discussion

• Navigation Systems (Basic-T)

• DME
• ADF
• VOR
• EGI
• MMR

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Airbus A380 Flight Deck

(modified off wikipedia.com’s image)

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Critical Flight/Navigation Data

1. The Basic-T navigation instruments provide the flight crew with

information critical to flight. These data/information include:
a) The aircrafts attitude information (pitch, roll, and yaw)
b) The aircraft indicated airspeed (IAS, Mach, G/S, TAS - for
higher performance vehicles)
c) Aircraft altitude information (Barometric Altitude)
d) Barometric pressure information (Baro setting/pressure
scale)
e) Heading information

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Displays Cont. . . (Basic-T configuration in yellow T-box)

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Transition to a more Integrated Display Architecture

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Bearing Sources

• The bearing sources displayed on the PFD can be toggled via the
Bearing Source Select Button on the PFD Control Panel. The bearing
sources are:
– VOR1, VOR2
– ADF1, ADF2
– TACAN

• If the bearing source is not available or invalid, the bearing pointer is

removed from the display.

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Very High Frequency Omni-Range (VOR)

1. VOR is strictly based on radials.
2. The To/From indicator points to the up (or nose
of the aircraft) when flying toward the VOR
station.
3. The To/From indicator reverses direction when
heading away from a VOR station.
4. The VOR is flagged when the VOR signal is out of
range/too weak.

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Very High Frequency Omni-Range (VOR) Cont. . .

1. The VOR station transmits two signals, one is constant in all directions, and the
other varies the phase relative to the first signal.
2. The VOR receiver senses the phase difference between the two frequencies and
the difference identifies 360 different directions or "radials" from the VOR.
– The aircraft is on one, and only one, radial from the station. The system does not
provide distance information.
3. When the appropriate VOR frequency is entered into a navigation radio, the VOR
indicator connected to that radio is used to find where the aircraft is relative to
the VOR station. The VOR station also provides a Morse-Code 3 letter identifier.

4. The vertical needle called a Course Deviation Indicator (CDI) on the VOR indicator
shows whether the aircraft is right or left of the chosen course.
– A "To/From/Off" indicator indicates whether the aircraft is on the "to" or "from" side.

– VOR stations are normally paired with a DME or TACAN station – when paired with a
TACAN it is referred to as VORTAC station.

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Very High Frequency Omni-Range (VOR)

5. The vertical needle called a Course Deviation Indicator (CDI) on the VOR indicator
shows whether the aircraft is right or left of the chosen course.
– A "To/From/Off" indicator indicates whether the aircraft is on the "to" or "from" side.
– If the aircraft is "abeam the station", an "off" indication is given. To fly toward the
station, the Omni Bearing Selector (OBS) is turned until the CDI is centered with a "to"
indication.

6. The pilot then flies that heading. To find out where the aircraft is located from
that station, center the needle with a "from" indication.
– If a radial is dialed into the VOR indicator, the CDI will be right or left of the center and
either a "to" or a "from" indication will be seen.
– The heading of the aircraft does not matter.

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Distance Measuring Equipment

5. DME measures "slant range" from the DME station relative to the aircraft's
position – this incorporates the height of the aircraft, its angle from the ground
station and its unknown ground range based upon a 90° angle.
6. The farther the aircraft is from the station and the lower the aircraft's altitude, the
more accurate the distance reading. An aircraft could be directly over the DME
station at an altitude of 10,500 feet above ground level (AGL) and the DME would
correctly indicate the aircraft is two miles from the station.

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To / From Indicator (displayed on the course pointer)

• To / From indicator operation:

– If the angular bearing between the station bearing and course ≤ 89
degrees, the To / From indicator is set to "To".
– If the angular bearing of the aircraft with respect to the station ≥
91 degrees, the To / From indicator is set to "From".
– If the angular difference between the station bearing and the
aircraft course is between 89 and 91 degrees, the To / From
indicator is removed from the display.

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VOR/LOC on HSI

• The lateral deviation indicator (i.e., HSI portion of the PFD), in VOR
mode, displays VOR course deviation or lateral deviation
(LOC/ILS/MLS).

• It is displayed and rotates perpendicular to the course pointer to

provide a graphical representation of the aircraft deviation.

• When the selected navigation source is invalid, the lateral deviation

scale and lateral deviation indicator are removed from the display.

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BEARING POINTER

• The behavior of the Course Pointer in the PFD Arc HSI Mode is very similar to
that of the PFD Centered HSI. The primary difference is in the Arc Mode the
display show a portion (arc) , while in the center mode a full view of the HSI
compass-rose is displayed.

• Other differences in between the Arc and Centered formats is that the
expanded compass representation permits only a partial view (Head/Tail) of
the Course Pointer to be in view.

• However, when the bearing exceeds the visible range of azimuth presented in
the compass, a Bearing “Out-of-View” pointer is displayed adjacent to the arc
compass indicating the direction of the currently selected bearing source.

• If the bearing is not available or invalid, the bearing pointer is removed from
the display.

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RANGE ARC

• Arc Range is displayed on the PFD HSI Arc to augment the Weather Radar,
Terrain and TCAS presentations.

• The Range ring radius (nm) is displayed on the right hand side of the inner arc.
The outer arc (compass) is twice the range of the inner ring.

• The Range can be changed via the Range Select Knob on the PFD control panel.

NOTE: The WXR minimum range is 2.5 nautical miles.

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Engine Indicator & Annunciation Panel

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ARINC SPECS - OVERVIEW

• ARIC 664/AFDX
– A664 is a multipart specification that defines Ethernet data network for aircraft
installations. Part 7 of the ARINC 664 defines a deterministic network known as
AFDX, which stands for Avionics Full Duplex Switched Ethernet.
– IEEE Standard 802.3 (Ethernet) is an integral part of the AFDX specification. The
AFDX extensions to IEEE 802.3 address the special requirements (quality of service
(QoS), reliability, etc) of an aircraft environment.
– AFDX is a new standard that provides much higher data rates than the existing
avionics databus protocols (e.g., A429). Airbus is credited to initiating this effort and
companies like Boeing are also employing this new protocol on new generation
platform (aircrafts)
• ARINC 429
– A429 is the industry standard for virtually all commercial and military aircrafts. It is a
specification that defines a local area network (LAN) for the transfer of digital data
between avionics system elements. This specification contains octal labels that are
dedicated to various standard avionics parameters and defines the format of the
payload.
– There are two speeds in A429 – i.e., Hi speed (100 kbps) and Lo Speed (12.5 kbps)
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Airspeed Indicator Mechanism. . .

• The airspeed indicator is a components of the

Air Data sub-system (ADS).
• This indicator computes the airspeed by
measuring the pressure in the pitot and static
circuits.

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Airspeed Computation

• The air data computer (ADC)

performs similar computation
function but in the case of the
ADC, the outputs are:
– Airspeed (TAS, IAS, Mach)
– Altitude (Feet)
– Vertical Speed (ft/min)

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Ancillary Information: Electronic Flight Bag (EFB)

Class I EFB
• COTS laptops or handheld electronic devices
• Considered a Portable Electronic Device (PED).
• Connect to a/c power and interface to other
systems via a docking station

Class II EFB
• PED
• Range from modified COTS to purpose-built devices.
• Typically mounted in a/c
• Viewable in all phases of flight.
• Can be used for bi-directional data
communication with avionics systems.

Class III EFB

• Installed equipment (non PED)
• Viewable in all phases of flight.
• Bi-directional data communication with avionics systems.
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System Interface

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System Interface

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Misc. . .

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