Flight Simulator Flight Test - Term Paper Example

Introduction A flight simulator is a device cable of recreating an aircraft flight together with the surroundings in which the aircraft is flying through, with the purpose pilot training or for design purpose and other purposes. This simulation is achieved through using the equations governing aircraft flying, simulation of how the aircraft reacts to flight controls and also how the aircraft react to external factors such as air density, air turbulence, wind shear, cloud cover and rain conditions. Flight simulators may require several hardware and software depending on the level of details of model and realism that is desired by the task at hand. A variety of designs are in use ranging from laptop models for simulating aircraft systems, cockpit simulators used for preliminary familiarization to simulation which are very close to real flight controls, the aircraft cockpit and the aircraft systems that come in handy in actual pilot training. The Full Flight Simulator (FFS) is considered to be most advanced flight simulation that is used to train Commercial Air Transport (CAT), while Full Mission Simulator (FMS) that is regarded as the highest ranking is used in military pilots training. In designing FFS it involves the coming together of bodies that regulate civil aviation that include FAA for USA and EASA for Europe. The design consists of motion platform for staging the simulator and a visual system for displaying Outside World (OTW). One of the regulation is where there is a requirement that motion platform need to have the capability of moving the simulator cab in all six degrees of freedom while the visual system (OTW) need to have 150 x40 degrees of views for all the involved pilots. In the military simulators there is a wider variation with regards to design with most of the aircrafts for military transport and simulators including those of helicopters being associated with civil FFS (Lloyd, 1979). Antoinette monoplane was the first flight simulation which was made to help pilots to fly. In the Wright designs pitching and rolling was achieved by use of levers while Antoinnete made use of two wheels one on the right and the second on the left of the pilot with one of the wheels being used in pitching and the other was used for rolling. The year 1909 saw the development of a training rig with the purpose of aiding the pilot in the operation of the control wheels before the aircraft could fly. The components of a training rig included a seat that was half way the barrel and two wheels. Developments in motion systems The link trainer which was a design of 1929 consisted of a motion system with the capability of giving pitching, rolling and yawing motion but had the limitation a limitation with regards to payload, which is the weight of replica cockpit. The year 1954 saw the development of a system which had a cockpit housing placed in a metal framework, that had ability to provide pitching, yawing and rolling all in three degree freedoms. There was further improvement to the system that saw increased displacement to a tune of 10 degrees of freedom being achieved by 1964. As interest increased in flight simulation there was a discovery that placing six jacks appropriately could achieve six degrees of freedom, this being a motion characteristics supposed to be exhibited by a body that is free to move. Pitching, rolling and yawing are all angular motions which a body can exhibit while in terms of motions we have heaving which is up and down motion; swaying is side by side motion while surging is the fore and aft movement. The six jack design platform first found application in automotive manufacture in 1954 with Erick Gough being the brain behind it while further refinements was undertaken by Stewart and this was captured in the paper to UK Institution of Mechanical Engineers and 1966. The six jack device was also named The Stewart platform in his honour (Fly Away Simulation, 2010). Commercial Air Transport (CAT) came into being from 1977 onwards and were characterized by having ancillaries including Instructor Operating Stations (IOS) and had a computer link to the top of the motion platform alongside the replica cockpit and not being placed away from the motion platform. In numerous professional flight institutions we have training arrangements involving initial training sessions being undertaken partially in the real aircraft while other sessions are undertaken in FNPTs and FTDs devices in order to reduce the cost of training. Here there is emphasis on instrument flying as well as cockpit resources management (CRM) at the point where the pilot trainee is believed to be familiar with elementary aircraft control, and flying skills. There is also emphasis on advanced aircraft systems with more time allocation being in the devices. In the final part where there is emphasis on advanced aircraft specific training would then see the involvement of Full Flight Simulators (FFS) which is best suited for Commercial Air Transport (CAT) where the trainee pilot is expected to fly after being fully qualified (Popular Science Monthly, 1919). High level FTDs or FFS is employed when it comes to aircraft orientation and recurrent training to most commercial pilots. When training is done under simulation it is possible to have maneuvers or situations which could not have been practically or could be dangerous if attempted in real aircraft, while both the pilot and the instructor will be at no risk in simulation devices. The situations that can be of great danger in the real aircraft when they occur yet pauses no danger when simulated include electrical system failure of the aircraft, failure of hydraulic system, instrument failure, flight control failures and failure in environmental system. By simulation it is possible for trainees to keep up with training tasks coming at high concentration above what could be done in real aircraft. A good case is in multiple training in which for a real aircraft it would require spending considerably substantial amount of time in aircraft repositioning. But when this is undertaken in simulation devices, it is possible for the instructor to reposition the aircraft to a position of his desire where the next approach can commence, immediately after completing one approach. Use of simulation devices in training of pilots is of economic advantage when compared to using the actual aircraft with the cost of operation of an FSTD being found to be low by a great margin this being after putting into consideration fuel cost, maintenance costs as well as insurance. For the cases where large transport aircraft categories are involved, the saving made through use of simulation devices found to be several times cheaper in comparison to use of real aircrafts. Discussion Altitude versus time From figure 1 the result of the plot of altitude versus time has been displayed. It is observed from the figure there was some time lapse before altitude started rising steadily to a point where it reached 2000ft. Ater reaching the 2000 ft mark, there was some lapse of time where the altitude remained constant with only some form of instability being experienced through some very small up and down fluctuations. From the 2000ft altitude it is observed that there was a steady increase up to the peak altitude of 3165ft this being attained after 442s. After the peak the altitude reduces constantly to 1641 at a time of 558s at which there is some rise to a smaller peak height of 1946ft at a time of 623s and after this point there is a constant drop to 437ft at time 743s. Figure appendix 1 gives the ground train in addition to the altitude (height). Figure 1 Direction verse time Figure 2 shows the variation of direction in degrees with time where at the start the heading is 350 and the heading remain constant at this point for about 214s and then there is a sudden change in the direction low values ranging from 2 degrees to about 42 degrees this low degrees direction is maintained up to 294s after which there is sudden change in direction to higher degree values ranging from 358 degrees at 295s to 302 degrees at 408s. there is a further steady change in direction form 302 at 408s down to about 200 degrees at 530s at which the directions shows some fluctuations but does not show a sudden change for some time. Figure 2 Airspeed Figure 3 shows the pattern exhibited by the speed versus time where it can be observed that at the initial stage there was abrupt increase to 100knots in 63s. After the first peak there it is seen there is constant fluctuation and at some point the airspeed is goes below 80knots and on the higher side it goes beyond 110knots. Figure 3 Vertical speed versus time From figure 4 it can be seen that there is a lot of fluctuation in the vertical speed. The speed goes beyond +1500 and in the negative sense the speed fluctuates to beyond -2000. The pattern exhibited also show that the vertical speed periodically becomes negative then go back to positive. Figure 4 Conclusion It has been seen from the experiment that the outcome from the simulation generally was in conformation to flight path which was to be followed but there was some deviation. In order for the intended path to be followed more closely it would be required that more training and practice be undertaken. Another conclusion that can be made is that flight simulation is a reliable pilot training option for using the actual aircraft and it is cheaper in addition drastically reducing accidents in pilot training. References Fly Away Simulation, (2010). Flight Simulator Technology Through the Years. . Lloyd K. ( 1979). The Pilot Maker. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, Popular Mechanics (1954). Airline Pilots Fly Anywhere in the world - Without Leaving the Ground. Popular Science Monthly (1919). Dry Shooting for Airplane Gunners. Appendix Read More