Patent ID: 8378852

Claim:
A monitoring system for notifying an operator that an aircraft is approaching a geographical feature of interest; the system comprising: a database containing geo-referenced charts, wherein each geo-referenced chart contains information related to at least one geographical feature of interest; a processor; a positioning system configured to identify at least one of the position, heading, track, altitude, and velocity of the aircraft; and a display unit configured to display the geo-referenced airport chart and at least one of the present position of the aircraft and the at least one geographical feature of interest on the chart; wherein the processor utilizes the at least one of aircraft position, heading, track, altitude, and velocity data from the positioning system to define a containment area always encompassing at least the aircraft and an area surrounding the aircraft, determines whether the at least one geographical feature of interest is at least partially located within the containment area, and initiates a notification signal upon determining that the at least one geographical feature of interest is at least partially located within the containment area; wherein the notification signal is transmitted to the display unit causing a visual notification to be presented to the operator, and wherein the visual notification ceases upon the aircraft moving parallel to the geographical feature of interest for at least one of a predetermined distance and a predetermined time.