Troubleshooting and maintenance of avionics equipment in an aircraft are important tasks for proper operation of the aircraft during flight and taxiing. Even the most sophisticated and complex diagnostic systems must be regularly reviewed by flight crew and pilots for recovering potential faults of the avionics equipment. Most electronic instrument systems used in the aircraft receive signals and parameters from various sensors, and display the signals and parameters on one or more single or multicolor display units on an instrument panel. The diagnostic system evaluates changes in the signals and parameters based on programmed thresholds, and warns the flight crew of any changes that could signal impending technical issues. Typically, any of the sensed signals and parameters are automatically displayed when the signals and parameters fall outside of their allowable range of operation.
Typically, during preparation for taxiing, take-off, cruise or landing, the pilot performs many diagnostic tasks. The pilot determines an accurate navigational course of the aircraft by examining current conditions of the avionic systems. Then, the pilot prepares the aircraft for optimizing the operation of the aircraft according to Air Traffic Control (ATC) constraints. As a result, the workloads of the pilot and flight crew become significant and convoluted during operation. Thus, it is important to perform prompt and effective examination of the avionics equipment, and confirm that the avionics equipment is operating smoothly without any interruptions and delays, or that the operational impact of any avionics equipment failure is promptly and clearly understood.
A conventional configuration of the display unit renders the links between these signals and parameters not readily recognizable, and creates confusion and misunderstanding prone to improper or ill-timed adjustments of the avionics equipment during operation leading to unnecessary workload. As an example only, it may be unclear whether a sudden change in a fuel consumption rate influences a navigation ability of the aircraft during take-off or landing. In some cases, the pilot may have to spend a relatively considerable amount of time evaluating information gleaned from the signals and parameters before initiating corrective actions.
Further, various equipment fault information is observed and considered independently in an isolated manner, separately from other related fault information that may also need to be reviewed simultaneously. It takes time for the pilot to gather all relevant information and determine the effective course of action for correcting the detected faults of the aircraft. The conventional configuration does not always effectively and promptly provide an actual or potential root cause or location of the trouble when the fault is detected by the diagnostic system.
Therefore, there is a need for developing an improved diagnostic display system and method such that the diagnostic display system facilitates an accurate depiction of faults root cause as well as impacts on aircraft abilities, thereby easing correction of the faults for sustaining reliable navigation and control of the aircraft.