Page 22 - ITU-T Focus Group on Aviation Applications of Cloud Computing for Flight Data Monitoring - Use cases and requirements

ITU-T Focus Group on Aviation Applications of Cloud Computing for Flight Data Monitoring
Use cases and requirements

DESCRIPTION: Electronic Engine Control (L Eng

NCMM ATA: 22

Time / Date: 0828 16APR15

FAULT TYPE: DESCENT INTERMITTEN
FAULT MODE: Inactive

CMC: 2229148

DESCRIPTION: TMCF in Right AIMS has no input from Engine Data Interface Unit (R Eng
NCMM ATA: 22

Time / Date: 0828 16APR15

FAULT TYPE: DESCENT INTERMITTEN

FAULT MODE: Inactive

3.5 Flight management computer (FMC)

Flight management computer or flight management system (FMC/FMS) is a fundamental component of
modern aircraft avionics. It is a specialized computer system that automates a wide variety of in-flight tasks,
reducing the workload on the flight crew. All FMSs contain a navigation database. The navigation database
contains the elements from which the flight plan is constructed for the aircraft, other in-flight tasks include:
position determination, guidance and vertical navigation (VNAV) which includes control of the pitch axis and
control of the throttle.

FMCs are usually connected to the ACARS communication unit. The flight crew can send requests or reports
to the ground or receive reports from the ground. The uplinked data as reviewed by the pilot and if accepted
it gets stored and activated in FMC. With the uplinks, paper documents and processes of manually entering
data are eliminated in order to reduce pilot workload.

Each airline makes different use of the FMC messaging. This means not airlines use all features. Important
factors for using the FMC messaging are airline ground and flight processes, available information technology
(IT) systems and airline size.

Many FMC messages use the ARINC 702A standard.
Examples of downlinks:

• Flight plan data report downlink: Contains the list of waypoints, flight levels, etc.
• Position report downlink: Contains the position, current and next waypoint, time, altitude, wind data,
speed, fuel data, air temperature, etc.
Examples of uplinks:

• Flight plans data uplink: Contains the list of waypoints, flight levels, etc.
• Performance data uplink: zero fuel weight, centre of gravity, cruise altitude, fuel data, etc.

• En-route wind data uplink: Wind direction speed for each requested waypoint on different flight levels.
• Take-off data uplink: Runway data, etc.

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