-----Original Message----- From: Stuart Buchanan Sent: Sunday, February 17, 2013 8:31 PM To: FlightGear developers discussions Subject: Re: [Flightgear-devel] Aircraft Checklists
On Fri, Feb 15, 2013 at 9:23 PM, Alan Teeder wrote: > Is there any way to chain checklists automatically so that they follow one > another in a pre-defined order? They should appear in the checklists dialog in the order in which they are defined in the XML file, so simply define them in the order you wish. > An alternative, which may have further advantages, would be to have a tree > structure of checklists, where one branch has to be completed before going > back to the trunk and then on to the next branch. Note that the checklist function doesn't enforce any action on the part of the pilot. It simply provides a convenient representation of a textual checklist plus some highlighting to indicate completed steps and (once I get around to it) the ability to highlight the relevant controls. > e.g. on cockpit entry I want to do a right to left sequence of checks, > starting with the port side panel, going on to the port coaming, then the > port instrument panel etc, covering the whole cockpit methodically. Each > of > these panels has up to a dozen checks. This is how the checks were > actually > organised (with a book of cards) on this particular aircraft. The cockpit > entry checks were then followed by the start sequence, the after > starting, > the take off, after take-off, circuit ad approach /landing checks. I don't think that's a tree structure, just an ordered list, which is already provided. > The emergency checks also follow a tree structure, but in this case the > next > branch depends upon the result of a particular check. (e.g. did the engine > relight within 20 seconds?) I think that's getting a bit specialized, and overly complicated. I'd also point out that we're just supporting the pilot's use of checklists, not attempting to automate them. I don't think it's unreasonable to have a checklist items that says "if the engine does not relight within 20 seconds, run the Engine Dead Checklist" (Additionally I'd be pleasantly surprised if our systems/failure modelling is good enough that such a decision tree wouldn't always go down the same path.) -Stuart Stuart Thanks for the reply. The reason for my query was that I have found making a representative set of checklists is becoming very unwieldy. With just my "entering the cockpit checks", I have already made 9 separate checklist. Each one has about 10 checks. I have made one checklist per check list card on the real aircraft. These checklist items disappear off the top of the menu list screen, and there is no indications as to which checklists/cards have been completed, or which is the next to do. Having got this far it is obvious that the current system will not cope for the rest of the aircraft checklists that I intend to replicate. Yes, my level of simulation will include such detail as the "fail to relight in 20 seconds" scenario. For background info my suggestions were based upon an interactive checklist system that I was involved with in the 1980´s as part of a joint BAC/Hawker Siddeley glass cockpit simulation. This was before the two companies merged to form BAe. AFAIK this was the first glass cockpit project to have an in depth simulator evaluation. Our two target aircraft were the VC10 ( completely eliminating the flight engineer station) and the A300 which was state of the art at that time. This electronic checklist also bought up the relevant systems displays on one or more other front panel CRT´s . In normal use (e.g. start-up) the electronic checklist was selected by the crew, but the relevant set of checks were automatically initiated when aircraft failures were detected. The system was intelligent enough to follow the sequence of events following an emergency (e.g. my relight scenario) , and also had a priority system to deal with the major faults (engine failure, fire, etc) before lesser ones. At the moment my TSR2 is not a glass cockpit, but having a usable checklist system would save a lot of paper. AS an old fogey I am not up to speed with current developments in this field, but am sure that some of our work has a modern counterpart. Anyway - you asked for comments on your checklist system ;) Alan ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Go Parallel Website, sponsored by Intel - in partnership with Geeknet, is your hub for all things parallel software development, from weekly thought leadership blogs to news, videos, case studies, tutorials, tech docs, whitepapers, evaluation guides, and opinion stories. Check out the most recent posts - join the conversation now. http://goparallel.sourceforge.net/ _______________________________________________ Flightgear-devel mailing list Flightgear-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/flightgear-devel
