Patent ID: 7734411

Claim:
A method for selecting a predicted path of an aircraft comprising: imposing a constraint on an aircraft flight controller; detecting the imposition of the constraint; detecting hazard locations; calculating a planned path; detecting an aircraft current location; comparing the aircraft current location to the constraint to determine a variation of aircraft current location from the constraint; providing alerts of hazards located along a current predicted flight path; selecting a constrained path corresponding to the constraint as the current predicted flight path if the aircraft current location is within a constraint tolerance distance from the constraint and outside a flight plan tolerance distance from the planned path; selecting the planned path as the current predicted flight path if the aircraft current location is not within the constraint tolerance from the constrained path and is within the flight plan tolerance from the planned path; and selecting a tactical path corresponding to a trajectory of the aircraft if the aircraft current location is not within the constraint tolerance from the constrained path and is not within the flight plan tolerance from the planned path.