Communications: electrical – Aircraft alarm or indicating systems – Nonairplane
Reexamination Certificate
1999-05-17
2001-06-12
Lee, Benjamin C. (Department: 2632)
Communications: electrical
Aircraft alarm or indicating systems
Nonairplane
C340S945000, C340S973000, C701S014000, C701S016000, C701S035000, C701S099000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06246341
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a method and a device for assistance with the maintenance of an aircraft, particularly of a helicopter.
DESCRIPTION OF THE RELATED ART
Various devices are known for assistance with maintenance, particularly on helicopters. Generally, these devices are attached devices and are only intended to monitor particular elements of the said helicopter, such as its engine or engines, for example.
To that end, these known devices generally record data relating to the said elements to be monitored and process these data so as to form maintenance information which especially indicates any failure in one of the said elements, as the case may be, this maintenance information being able to be replayed to a maintenance operator at the end of a flight, so as to facilitate any maintenance operations which may have to be carried out.
However, these usual maintenance-assistance devices, and especially the known devices of the “Health and Usage Monitoring System” type (see the document EP-0 407 179, for example) exhibit many drawbacks. In particular, a defect or even a total failure of such devices may not be detected by the pilot, which is, needless to say, very inconvenient for maintenance.
Hence, in order to overcome this drawback, special-purpose verification means are generally provided for each of these known devices, in particular:
in order to check that the said device is actually connected; and
in order to ensure that the said device is fully serviceable.
Such verification means are, needless to say, bulky and expensive.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The object of the present invention is to remedy these drawbacks. It relates to a method necessitating reduced size and cost for its implementation and providing assistance with maintenance which is both comprehensive and very effective.
To that end, according to the invention, the said method is noteworthy in that data relating to the operation of the said aircraft are recorded, with a view to their being replayed in the form of maintenance information, these data being accessible to a monitoring and visual display system of the said aircraft, and in that only data capable of being visually displayed by the said monitoring and visual display system are recorded with a view to presenting them to at least one pilot of the said aircraft.
Thus, since by virtue of the invention there is no longer any difference between the data recorded and those presented to the pilot, the latter is in a position personally and at any moment to verify the correct operation of the said maintenance-assistance method, which makes it possible to dispense with special-purpose verification means and thus to obtain a very effective method offering inexpensive and compact implementation.
Moreover, by reason of the link created with the said monitoring and visual display system of the aircraft, which is preferably a system which carries out comprehensive monitoring of the aircraft and which displays important information on the operation of the said aircraft on screens installed in the cockpit, overall monitoring of the aircraft is carried out by virtue of the invention, and not monitoring of particular elements of it as is the case for the above-mentioned known devices.
It will be noted moreover, in the context of the present invention, that replaying of maintenance information means visual display of the said information on a screen or printing on an appropriate medium (paper or diskette).
According to the invention, the said maintenance information preferably includes:
indications on failures of elements of the said aircraft. Elements of the said aircraft are understood to mean both parts or units of the said aircraft which are necessary for its operation, as well as components of the device intended for implementing the method in accordance with the invention and components of the said monitoring and visual display system;
characteristic values likely to facilitate the understanding and the repair of the said failures; and/or
indications or proposals for repair of the said failures, either in the form of direct and precise proposals or in the form of a reference back to a maintenance manual.
Furthermore, advantageously, the following successive steps are carried out:
a) tests are performed for detecting failures;
b) when a failure is detected, all the data relating to the operation of the said aircraft and likely to be related to the said failure are recorded;
c) the said recorded data are processed so as to form maintenance information; and
d) the said maintenance information is replayed.
At step a), at least one of the following tests is preferably carried out, consisting respectively:
in the case of a monitoring and visual display system comprising at least two monitoring suites, in verifying coherence between the information generated respectively by the said suites;
in verifying the validity of values of defined parameters; and
in making comparisons between different values, for example values detected respectively by systems for monitoring the two engines of a twin-engined helicopter.
Moreover, in order to facilitate detection of a failure, according to the invention, at the above-mentioned step b):
after a failure has been detected and before data relating to the said failure are recorded, a characteristic signal is displayed indicating the existence of the failure, and the pilot is asked to take action with a view to recording the said data, which makes it possible to ensure that the pilot has taken due note of the existence of the said failure;
in the event of an intermittent failure being detected, the recurrence of the said failure and an indication as to its presence at the end of flight are recorded; and/or
the values, before and after the detection of the failure, of at least one parameter characteristic of the said failure are recorded, and, at the above-mentioned step c), a comparison is carried out between the said values recorded in order to locate the said failure, which makes it possible to refine the fault locating.
Moreover, advantageously, at the said step c), in order to locate a failure;
coherence processing operations of known type are carried out; and/or
account is taken of the probability of failure for a plurality of elements of the said aircraft and of the ease of replacing each of the said elements.
Moreover, in order to simplify the presentation of the information, for example in flight to a pilot or on the ground to a maintenance operator, the said maintenance information is advantageously grouped in such a way as to form pages of information.
Moreover, a menu page is preferably formed, indicating the various pages of information available and allowing an operator to select at least one of the said pages of information, at least in order to view it, but also, if necessary, to print it onto an appropriate medium (diskette, paper).
Furthermore, in order to facilitate maintenance based on monitoring of information over a plurality of different, preferably successive, flights, advantageously:
a set of at least j pages of information is formed, comprising information of the same type, for a number j of recent flights, j being an integer greater than or equal to 1; and
an entry page is formed, indicating the various pages of information available of the said set of j pages of information, so as to select one of the said pages of information, at least in order to view it, and possibly to print it out on a medium.
In one particularly advantageous embodiment, at least one page of information is formed including at least:
information relating to failures of the aircraft;
information relating to limits exceeded;
information on a health check on at least one engine of the said aircraft;
information relating to times for implementing the said method and flight times of the said aircraft; and/or
one of the last m flight reports, m being an integer greater than or equal to 1.
Preferably, each of the said m flight reports includes at least some of the following information
Eurocopter
Lee Benjamin C.
Stevens Davis Miller & Mosher LLP
LandOfFree
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