Patent ID: 8630750

Claim:
A method of controlling a steering control equipment for an aircraft which changes a traveling direction of the aircraft by changing an angular position of a steering mechanism of the aircraft while the aircraft is taxiing, the method comprising: providing a steering handle operably coupled to the steering mechanism and configured to output an operation amount of the steering handle; providing rudder pedals operably coupled to the steering mechanism and configured to output an operation amount of the rudder pedals; providing angular-position detecting means for detecting the actual angular position of the steering mechanism; providing ground-speed detecting means for detecting a speed of the aircraft relative to the ground as a ground speed; providing airspeed detecting means for detecting the speed of the aircraft relative to the air as an airspeed; providing a controller operably coupled to the steering handle, rudder pedals, angular-position detecting means, ground-speed detecting means, and airspeed detecting means, the controller being configured to: set a control speed of the aircraft on the basis of the ground speed and the airspeed; calculate a target angular position of the steering mechanism by: calculating a first component of a provisional target angular position of the steering mechanism based on the operation amount of the steering handle; calculating a second component of the provisional target angular position of the of the steering mechanism based on the operation amount of the rudder pedals; adding the first and second components of the provisional target angular position to obtain a summed provisional target angular position; and calculating a final target angular position based on the summed provisional target angular position and the control speed set by the speed setting section; wherein at least one of the handle-part calculation section and the pedal-part calculation section is configured to calculate a provisional target angular position of the steering mechanism based on the operation amount of the steering handle, the operation amount of the rudder pedals, and at least one of the ground speed, air speed, and control speed; and actuate the steering mechanism so that the actual angular position of the steering mechanism coincides with the final target angular position.