Patent ID: 8548653

Claim:
An aiding method for piloting of an airplane upon an approach phase to an airport, wherein the following succession of steps is carried out on an automatic and repetitive way, the method comprising: a) determining, with a set of information sources including sensors on the airplane, a current height of the airplane relative to ground and a current pitch angle of the airplane; b) from the current height and the current pitch angle and geometrical data being representative of the airplane and related to an end point of the airplane, calculating, with a maximum roll angle calculation device on the airplane, a limit roll angle, which is a maximum roll angle at which the end point of the airplane will not strike the ground, the limit roll angle φ lim being calculated by: cos 2 φ lim =(− b +√{square root over ( b 2 −4 ac )})/2 a with: a=Y 1 2 +( HRA+Z 2 −Z 1 ) 2 b= 2 tg θ( HRA+Z 2 −Z 1 ) X 1 c=tg 2 θX 1 2 −Y 1 2 wherein: tg represents a tangent; θ is the current pitch angle of the airplane; HRA is the current height of the airplane relative to the ground, being measured by a radio-altimeter according to a measurement direction; Z 2 is a distance along the measurement direction between a centre of gravity of the airplane and a measurement point of the radio-altimeter; and X 1 , Y 1 and Z 1 are geometrical data being representative of the airplane and correspond to distances between the centre of gravity of the airplane and the end point, respectively along three axes of movement relative to the airplane; c) determining a current roll angle of the airplane with current roll angle sensors on the airplane; and d) presenting on a single screen on the airplane a first characteristic sign illustrating the current roll angle and a second characteristic sign illustrating the limit roll angle.