Patent ID: 7428765

Claim:
A method for stabilizing a passenger boarding bridge, comprising: providing a passenger boarding bridge including a tunnel section having an aircraft-engaging end supported in a height adjustable manner by a wheel carriage including drive wheels and a plurality of adjustable jacks; moving the aircraft-engaging end of the passenger boarding bridge into an aligned relationship relative to a doorway of an aircraft; detecting automatically the aligned relationship between the aircraft-engaging end of the passenger boarding bridge and the doorway of the aircraft; and, in dependence upon detecting the aligned relationship between the aircraft-engaging end of the passenger boarding bridge and the doorway of the aircraft, actuating automatically each jack of the plurality of adjustable jacks between a retracted condition and an extended condition, wherein detecting automatically the aligned relationship between the aircraft-engaging end of the passenger boarding bridge and the doorway of the aircraft comprises making a determination, to within a range of predetermined threshold values, that the aircraft-engaging end of the passenger boarding bridge and the doorway of the aircraft are in the aligned relationship, and, wherein the determination is made in dependence upon the expiration of a predetermined period of time since a last movement of the passenger boarding bridge.