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subwayboy
16th Mar 2003, 08:28
I am a very frequent PAX on the Tapei - HK - Tokyo routes,

I usually fly CX , but have been known to fly JAA, although I'm not to keen on flying in Aircraft which are older than me !!!

Anyway, my question

These in-flight displays with the maps, Altitude and current time to dest etc

how are the generated,

1. an independant GPS device + info from the planes on-board systems

2. Or just a sub-set of the information the pilot has access to ?

The time to destination info is usually very accurate, but is the altitude and head/tail / airspeed etc ?


thanks in advance

Paul (A systems engineer with a hatrid of flying)
Seba
18th Mar 2003, 16:45
well,I'm almost sure ETA and GS would be derived from the FMC,so I guess everything would come straight from the cockpit?
Might be possbile a seperate GPS receiver is sused for the map
any-one can confirm this?
ETOPS
18th Mar 2003, 18:50
On my 777 it's all derived from the FMC hence pretty accurate. Main thing we have to remember is to turn it off if diverting en-route, as the pax see the alteration immediately..........
MadsDad
19th Mar 2003, 08:20
On the majority of flights I have been on the PAX information display has been switched off on descent, usually at about 3000 - 5000 feet. The exception was an Egyptair 747 landing at Luxor when the pilot left the display on while we landed. I was watching the display thinking 70 metres to go when thud, the wheels hit the tarmac. Came as a bit of a surprise.

I would assume that 1. the display is normally switched off to save nervous passengers from themselves and 2. Luxor airport is 70 metres above sea level. Can anyone confirm either?

Finally a couple of years ago I got a phone call from my mother-in-law (who is in her 70s) and who had just flown back from India. She asked me 'can aeroplanes fly backward?' to which the answer was 'not normally, why?'. It turned out that when coming in to Heathrow they had been stacked and, at times while orbiting, the little picture of the aeroplane on the display had been going backwards. :rolleyes: