Thermal center flight indicator for gliders

Details Thermal center flight indicator for gliders Thermal center flight indicator for gliders

1998-06-30

2000-07-18

Poon, Peter M.

Aeronautics and astronautics

Aircraft control

701 5, B64C 500, B64C 1900

Patent

active

060895063

ABSTRACT:
A thermal center flight indicator is provided that serves glider pilots who want to gain altitude by circling in thermals. The indicator is activated when entering a thermal, indicating to a pilot a continually computed approximate position of the center of the thermal relative to the present position and heading. The pilot can iteratively improve his track, thus making better use of the thermal. The indicator comprises a computing unit and an indicator, and computes input signals from a position-fix-unit and a measuring unit for the vertical speed. The computing unit computes a product of vertical speed and position coordinates, and sums up all positive products of position coordinates and vertical speed. The computing unit forms coordinates of a thermal center by dividing the sum of all products of position coordinates and positive vertical speed by a sum of all vertical speeds.

REFERENCES:
patent: 3798971 (1974-03-01), Lowrance
patent: 4506847 (1985-03-01), Norman
patent: 4591111 (1986-05-01), Laughter
patent: 4725811 (1988-02-01), Muller et al.
patent: 4728951 (1988-03-01), Johnson et al.

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