A flight simulator study concerning the evaluation of flight director flown curved Microwave Landing System (MLS) approach paths with a simulated wide body transport aircraft is described. Four curved approach paths, consisting of two straight segments and one 90 deg circular segment with different straight final segments lengths, were investigated. Moreover an MLS equivalent of the 13R Canarsie visual approach at Kennedy airport New York (U.S.) was considered. Test objectives were: to demonstrate the flybility of curved approaches for wide body type of aircraft; to collect scientific data on pilot performance and operational acceptance for manually flown (flight director aided) curved approaches; to determine the operationally acceptable minimum straight final segment length. Test conditions included various wind and visual conditions. Winds yielding limiting conditions for category 2 operations and winds providing airframe limiting conditions, as far as magnitude of cross/tailwind comments are concerned, were included. Visibility and cloud base conditions ranged from category 2 to better than category 1 conditions. Test data were obtained as subjective and objective results. Subjective results concern pilot questionnaire responses and pilot comments, while the objective results concern among other things path tracking accuracy, including isoprobability contour plots and touchdown performance.
Flight Simulation Evaluation of the Flyability of Curved Mls Approaches with Wide-Body Aircraft
1990
123 pages
Report
No indication
English