Flight Management ILS Update via Digital NOTAM
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Solution Overview
Problem
Pilots often fail to update the aircraft flight management system with the latest Instrument Landing System (ILS) category and decision height/altitude information provided through digital NOTAMs, leading to potential undesirable effects on aircraft safety.
Innovation Solution
An ILS update and notification system that automatically updates the flight management system with new ILS category and decision height information and notifies the pilot, while preventing manual changes that contradict the NOTAM updates.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If pilots manually update the flight management system with ILS category and decision height information from digital NOTAMs, then the system remains simple and easy to operate, but pilots often fail to update the information leading to safety risks
Solution Approach 1:
The flight management system automatically receives, parses, and updates ILS category and decision height information from digital NOTAMs without requiring pilot intervention. The system monitors for NOTAMs, extracts relevant parameters, and updates the flight management database autonomously, eliminating the need for manual pilot action while ensuring information currency and safety.
Solution Approach 2:
The system provides feedback to pilots by displaying notifications when ILS category or decision height information has been updated via digital NOTAM. This feedback mechanism ensures pilots are aware of the automatic updates and the current valid parameters, maintaining situational awareness without requiring manual update actions.
2Reliability
If the system automatically updates ILS category and decision height information from digital NOTAMs, then safety is improved by ensuring correct information is used, but the system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The flight management system leverages existing multi-functional components already present in modern aircraft, including the digital NOTAM reception capability, data parsing functions, and database management systems. By repurposing these existing universal components for automatic ILS parameter updates, the system achieves safety improvements without adding significant new hardware or complex dedicated subsystems.
Solution Approach 2:
The automatic ILS update function is merged with the existing digital NOTAM processing and flight management database systems. Rather than creating a separate standalone system, the invention integrates the update functionality into the existing flight management architecture, combining multiple functions (NOTAM reception, parsing, validation, and database updating) into a unified process that reduces overall system complexity.
3Reliability
If the system prevents pilot attempts to select ILS category inconsistent with NOTAM ILS category, then safety is improved by avoiding incorrect selections, but the ease of operation decreases due to restricted user input
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary validation by comparing any pilot-input ILS category against the NOTAM-derived ILS category before allowing the selection to take effect. This preliminary check prevents inconsistent selections from being processed, ensuring safety while maintaining a straightforward user interface that simply blocks invalid inputs rather than requiring complex verification procedures.
Data Source
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AI summary
A system and method is provided for updating an aircraft flight management system with approach and landing information received from a NOTAM transmission. The system and method receives an updated ILS category, updates the ILS category and updates the associated decision height/altitude. In addition, the system and method generates a notification of the NOTAM update and disregards user attempts to select an ILS category and/or decision height that is inconsistent with the NOTAM update.