China
Africa
Explore chapters and articles related to this topic
Climb and descent
Published in Mohammad H. Sadraey, Aircraft Performance, 2017
Descending flight is another flight operation that must be evaluated for aircraft performance analysis. It is not as important as climbing flight, but there are a few instances that an aircraft must perform well; otherwise, aircraft may end up having a crash. Descending flight is the major flight operation prior to landing (see Figure 7.27) for a conventional aircraft. It is the lowest-cost flight operation. A descent during air travel is any portion of the flight where an aircraft decreases the altitude and is the opposite to an ascent or a climb. Descents are an essential component of an approach to landing. Large transport aircraft in a long-range flight begins to descend (from cruise ceiling) when the aircraft has about 150–250 km to the destination airport. This is equivalent to about 20–30 min of a long-range flight.
Head-up displays assist helicopter pilots landing in degraded visual environments
Published in Theoretical Issues in Ergonomics Science, 2018
Neville A. Stanton, Aaron P. Roberts, Katherine L. Plant, Craig K. Allison, Catherine Harvey
Weather significantly impacted the time pilots took to fly between 200–100 ft and 100–50 ft, these phases of the descent took longer in degraded visual conditions (see Table 2 and Figures 3 and 4). At such altitudes, pilots became more aware of potential obstacles as they looked for visual references on the ground. The time taken by pilots to fly between the flight gates was differentially affected by having the HUD in degraded visual conditions. It was not clear what such results indicate, particularly as pilots took longer to descend from 50 ft to ground with the HUD than without the HUD in degraded visual conditions but were much faster with the HUD than without the HUD in clear visual conditions (see Table 2). The HUD may have provided a supportive framework that allowed pilots to continue to fly reactively, but in a more controlled fashion. The results offered support for a change in the flight behaviours of pilots due to the HUD, which, when interpreted alongside the subjective ratings indicated a positive influence, although the precise strategies of using the HUD might be different in degraded compared to clear visual conditions. This should be considered in future HUD designs and research projects.