An intelligent flight-management aid for procedure execution

A computer program is described that contains a model of the procedures used in the operation of a twin engine aircraft. This program, by comparing the model to the aircraft state, can determine when a procedure (or checklist) should be or is invoked and when each step (detectable by a change in the aircraft state) is completed. Thus, the program tracks the flight crew's procedure execution through changes in the aircraft state. Data were used for evaluation from an earlier experiment on a Link GAT-II simulator. The program had been able to identify practically all of the errors identified by human judges as well as locate some missed by them. It is felt that this model could significantly aid flight crews.