Question

What are the major automated systems that are being used in modern flight decks of commercial airliners and how do each of them impact the pilots flight duties?

Please list and describe the systems that are currently used.

Answer 1

The major automated system currently being used are:

1. Electronic Centralized Aircraft Monitor (ECAM)

2. Engine Indicating and Crew Alerting System (EICAS)

Electronic Centralized Aircraft Monitor (ECAM)

It is automation system that monitors the functions of the aircraft and passes the information over to the pilots. This system also produces messages detailing failures and lists the methods to resolve them.

This is done by having sensors placed throughout the aircraft, which monitors certain parameters and then transmits the information to the System Data Acquisition Concentrator (SDACs), which processes the data and further transmits it to the Flight Warning Computers (FWCs). FWC checks for any inconsistency in data and then displays the data through the Display Management Computers (DMCs).

Engine Indicating and Crew Alerting System (EICAS)

It is a consolidated system used in modern aircraft which displays the engine parameters and alerts the crew to any faults in the system.

This system uses the configuration of engine components such as revolutions per minute, temperature, fuel quantity etc. The crew alerting system displays a list of error messages in a small window rather than the annunciator panel.

Impact of each of them on the pilot’s flight duties:

1. Basic awareness of pilot can decrease due to the ease of control due to the automation engines and the pilots interacting with the system can cause them to be distracted from monitoring the flight path.
2. Faults in the automated system can cause unexpected behavior.
3. Flight crews will spend time trying to comprehend the origin, conditions, or causes of an alarm of the system which will distract them from other priority tasks.
4. System are not equipped to deal with multiple failures and such a condition may cause the system to crash.
5. Data entry errors in the system will cause incorrect value to be recorded and will thus generate wrong output.