Patent ID: 8784107

Claim:
A flight training system, comprising: an in-flight component comprising: (a) a first processor; and (b) a first computer readable medium in communication with the first processor and comprising a first set of instructions executable by the first processor, the first set of instructions comprising: (i) instructions to collect a set of flight data about an aircraft during an in-flight training flight, wherein an in-flight training flight is a training flight that occurs in the air; and (ii) instructions to store the set of flight data on the first computer readable medium; and a ground component comprising: (a) a set of controls to provide control of a simulated aircraft; (b) a second processor in communication with the set of controls; (c) a second computer readable medium in communication with the second processor and comprising and a second set of instructions executable by the second processor, the second set of instructions comprising: (i) instructions to receive, from the in-flight component, the set of flight data collected during the in-flight training flight; (ii) instructions to provide a simulation of the in-flight training flight, based on the set of flight data collected during the in-flight training flight; (iii) instructions to receive a set of control data from the set of controls, to allow a student to participate in the simulation of the in-flight training flight; (iv) instructions to receive a set of modified flight data; and (v) instructions to modify the simulation of the in-flight training flight, based on the received set of modified flight data; wherein: the set of flight data comprises a set of free-body time, space and position information (“TSPI”), the set of TSPI comprises a set of altitude data, and the ground component further comprises instructions to correct the altitude data using a filter routine that is configured to identify a known runway elevation, receive altitude data from a global positioning system (“GPS”) receiver, and calculate, from the known runway elevation and the received altitude data, an actual altitude of the aircraft about ground level at a given point in time, based on a set of flight characteristics at the given point in time.