windows xp tablet pc edition electronic kneeboard for general … · 2015. 5. 22. · this white...

Virtual DSP Corporation

Windows XP Tablet PC Edition

Electronic Kneeboard

for General Aviation

Technical White Paper

Stephen G. Dame

August 2003

Copyright © 2003 by Virtual DSP Corporation. All rights reserved.

Tablet PC Aviation Technology Review 2

Table of Contents

Table of Contents........................................................................................................................... 2

Abstract........................................................................................................................................... 3

Electronic Kneeboard for General Aviation ................................................................................ 3 Introduction 3 Overview 4 Intended Audience 4 References 4

Electronic Kneeboard Aviation Cross Country Trip – Case Study........................................... 5 Flight Planning 6 Situational Awareness 7 Adverse Weather Avoidance 10 Datalink E-mail 13 Conclusions 14


Abstract

Microsoft and Fujitsu have teamed to provide an extraordinary new platform that progresses toward providing general aviation pilots an ideal flight planning, adverse weather avoidance, and navigation system that operates in real-time. The new Fujitsu ST4121 direct sunlight readable Tablet PC, running Windows XP Pro Tablet PC Edition, enables any pilot to have a more accurate and complete grasp on the key components of safe personal aircraft operation. This powerful PC can be carried from home or hotel to the flight line and into the cockpit. This facilitates a well-matched user interface to perform cockpit resource management (CRM) tasks quickly and accurately.

This white paper was written after extensive integration and testing of a variety of components to provide a unique “electronic kneeboard” for aviation. This Tablet PC based kneeboard is poised to replace the traditional paper based charts and manual methods used to manage aircraft travel. Since this is cutting edge technology, however, it is also prudent to retain some of the paper based materials as a backup. The normal assortment of technology issues associated with more terrestrial uses of computers do still occasionally happen –even with portable Tablet PC computers.

This case study highlights the importance of using all of the available resources that a pilot has at his disposal to manage the inherent risk associated with flying light general aviation aircraft. The companies and products featured in this paper represent a subset of the many computer products available for aviation. Many of the applications that run on desktop and laptop platforms are also well suited to execute on Tablet PC. In fact, even programs such as Microsoft Flight Simulator run on the typical Tablet PC and can be used to enhance the safety in general aviation personal travel through enhanced situational awareness during pre-flight planning.

Electronic Kneeboard for General Aviation

Introduction Personal computing technology is finding its way into the average General Aviation (GA) cockpit more each year as new hardware and software platforms enable more capability to enhance an aviator’s safety and efficiency of piloting these aircraft. In the past few years, Pocket PC’s have become popular as a supplemental navigational tool due to their relatively low cost and size that is friendly to aircraft yoke (steering wheel) mounting. However, the limited computing power, size and storage capacity of Pocket PC’s as well as direct sunlight readability has limited the full utility of a general purpose computing device such as the Pocket PC. Laptops have been used sporadically by pilots in larger aircraft where space allows, but in general, the ergonomic configuration of a laptop just doesn’t work in the confined cockpit of small GA airplanes. The pilot needs to have free access to the flight controls and instruments. The traditional working platform for most pilots has been neatly arranged paper charts, a note pad and a pencil (or two) all situated in a kneeboard that is sitting either on the pilots leg or across his lap. A simple clipboard with special springs to hold a pencil is the most common arrangement. Commonly strapped on the right leg (for right handed pilots) with Velcro, this is known as a pilot’s kneeboard.

The Tablet PC, with its form factor so similar to the kneeboard, is poised to possibly become the average GA pilot’s best friend due to its tremendously capable computing footprint, lightweight size and new daylight readable LCD display technology. The recent convergence of the Tablet PC and associated avionics software and hardware accessories creates an extremely compelling product that has no other rival in terms of price, utility, and portability. There is a whole class of emerging technologies known as “glass cockpit” referring to the use of large LCD glass panels to display flight instruments, moving map GPS displays and engine monitoring, but these are all universally expensive, very difficult to retrofit into the large fleet of older aircraft in service, and you can’t take them home with you to be used as a general purpose computing platform for other purposes. For less than $3,000 a highly capable portable 933MHz Pentium III Tablet PC, with 256Mbytes of RAM,


Ethernet and WiFi high speed Internet, a 56K Modem, dual USB ports, IEEE-1394 Firewire, a 60GB hard disk, complete with GPS and aviation planning and tracking software brings the price point of “portable glass cockpit” down to earth for the average general aviation pilot. And this investment isn’t limited to just being used in the cockpit, but carries over to any other mobile environment where a laptop is being used. In fact, for on the road use, the pen based user interface is even a more comfortable and natural way to take notes, compose e-mails and browse web pages (when connected via nearby WiFi hot spots or high speed Ethernet) than the traditional laptop.

Some basic requirements that a pilot needs from a mobile planning/navigation device:

• Lightweight, compact, daylight readable computing system

• Keyboard useful only during ground activities, not useful in the cockpit.

• Low Power and/or capable of being powered from aircraft ship’s power (24-28VDC)

• Easy to connect to high speed Internet and/or dialup connections.

• GPS receiver that can plug into the Tablet PC directly.

• Additional airborne means to connect to Internet based weather services.

• Adequate computing power for real-time moving map display

This white paper describes the system integration required to achieve the above results and chronicles a real-world case study utilizing the Tablet PC in a general aviation application.

Overview The purpose of this white paper is to expose the aviation community to the benefit of using the Tablet PC in an average general aviation cockpit through better:

• Flight Planning – better flight planning tools yield more precisely executed flights, and make the air traffic control and search and rescue organizations more keenly aware of the up to the minute position of aircraft on cross country trips. In the past, many lives alone could have been saved by simply knowing where a plane has gone down such that the search effort can be concentrated and the time to locate people in distress minimized.

• Situational Awareness – Once an accurate flight plan has been created and filed with the FAA, it only makes sense that it should be tracked and any variations to the plan be assessed in real-time. Moving map GPS makes this an easy and affordable reality with today’s technology.

• Weather Avoidance – The number one killer of pilots, Mother Nature, deserves special respect. There is a lot of technology deployed around the world that is producing weather data that is practically free for the asking. Utilizing a simple and inexpensive set of communication tools in concert with the large viewable screens of the Tablet PC makes assessing the weather in-flight a practical reality.

Intended Audience This document is intended for amateur and professional pilots, flight schools and flight instructors or anyone involved in the planning and execution of general aviation travel.

References http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/tabletpc

http://www.jeppesen.com

http://www.rayming.com/products/tripnav_tn200.htm

http://www.ocens.com

http://www.globalstarusa.com

http://www.globalmarinenet.net/email.htm


Electronic Kneeboard Aviation Cross Country Trip – Case Study

This year (2003) marks the 100 year anniversary of Powered Flight initiated by two of this century’s most notable inventors, Orville and Wilbur Wright. It seemed only appropriate that this summer’s 2003 Air Venture show in Oshkosh, WI (where some of the newest innovations in aviation and avionics technology are unveiled) would be an ideal venue for demonstrating the power and utility of the Tablet PC on an actual multi-day cross country flight in a single engine GA airplane. So, a couple of modern-day technology entrepreneurs decided to block their schedules for a couple of weeks to put the Tablet PC and associated technology through a solid workout.

The journey started in Everett, WA and was a 2½ day trip (each way) to Oshkosh, WI with overnight layovers for rest, refuelling and planning for each successive leg of the cross country journey. The airplane was a 1978 Cessna 172N which is about as ubiquitous of an airplane as it gets these days. There are literally tens of thousands of C172 aircraft flying throughout the world and it has been the number one training aircraft in the past 30 years. It is important to note that aircraft value plays a big role in the relative purchasing power of its pilot/owners for new avionics gear and accessories. Surprisingly, a 25 year old aircraft like this 1978 Cessna is a $50K to $75K investment. It has been documented that typically a pilot will not spend more than about 10% of the value of the aircraft for upgraded accessories every few years. This ~$5K-$7K dollar amount has particular relevance to the cost of the technology described in this paper. Figure 1: The authors Jim (left) and Steve (right).

Microsoft and Fujitsu collaborated to sponsor this technology review by providing the authors with ST4121 Sunlight readable Tablet PC’s, docking stations, and aircraft power adapters (to power the Tablet PC during flight). Ocens, Inc., a Seattle based weather delivery service, and Global Star phone dealer, provided a SATCOM phone, airtime, weather download service and in-flight e-mail capability. The authors provided the remaining tools needed to round out the trip including the Jeppesen FliteMap software, current navigation database service and a USB GPS unit. Some test flights were flown in the weeks prior to the Oshkosh show (Jul 28- Aug4 2003) to work out system integration issues of GPS, power, SATCOM phone and the variety of software applications that would be needed for the trip.

A key hardware component of the system had to be a GPS unit capable of good reception and specified to operate at typical aviation ground speeds in excess of 100 knots (115 MPH). Initially, the authors were attempting to adapt older aviation GPS units (Garmin 95XL, 195) via serial cables, but this proved to be a logistical headache both from the standpoint of extra battery power required by the units and also the RS-232 Serial to USB adapters required to interface to the Tablet PC (modern laptops and Tablet PC’s have abandoned the ubiquitous serial port in favor of USB). Fortunately Rayming manufactures a USB GPS “dongle” (Trip-NAV TN-200) that only requires a USB port and a special driver to be installed on the Tablet PC. This GPS unit was mostly error-free except for an occasional brief lost signal due to interaction with the SATCOM phone during its infrequent uplink operations.


Flight Planning The following flight plan was developed using Jeppesen FliteMap software and illustrates the many legs required to traverse the western and mid-western states including the Cascade and Rocky Mountains. Jeppesen makes flight planning easy by using a “Route Wizard”. The planning process starts by entering the end points of the complete trip specified by their internationally accepted four letter identifiers. In this case, the trip started at the airport “KPAE” (Everett, WA) and was to end at “KOSH” (Oshkosh, WI). A straight line between the two end points allows the pilot to view which states get crossed by the direct route. By selectively zooming in to optimize flyover points, and breaking the trip into several sub-routes, the entire trip is precisely laid out with navigation logs that are produced for each selected leg. Jeppesen even has the capability of dialling into standard pilot weather sources to obtain forecasted winds aloft, temperatures, sky conditions, and radar summaries. It then integrates the forecasted weather into the flight plan and makes adjustments for headwinds, tailwinds, etc. on the navigation logs and route charts. Having a precise plan makes for an enjoyable and safe trip with prognostic information about what to expect in weather, terrain, fuel management and even creature comforts like restaurants, hotels and rental cars near the airports along the journey.

Figure 2: Outbound Multi-leg Flight Plan from Seattle to Oshkosh, WI.

In most cases, the authors chose to fly the established low altitude enroute airways (otherwise known as “victor airways”) as they are the established routes that usually account for the best terrain clearance, radio reception and radar coverage. This is particularly important when flying in Instrument Meteorological Conditions (IMC) where visual contact with the ground is lost. Below is a figure zoomed around the Coeur D’Alene, ID where one of the most difficult mountain passes into Montana is located (Mullan Pass). The V120/V2 airway provides the safest route though this mountainous area.

Figure 3: Example of “Victor Airways” or Highways in the sky


Situational Awareness The next aspect of pilot performance enhancement, made possible by the Tablet PC, is situational awareness. Situational awareness includes being able to comprehend how the aircraft is performing compared with how the pilot has planned for it to perform. On a long cross country flight plan, this means assessing both the horizontal and vertical performance according to the planned routes and altitudes regardless of the weather conditions.

The high tech glass cockpit tools, available on many higher end personal jet and newer twin engine turboprop aircraft (as show below in Figure 4), provide for Primary Flight Display (PFD) functions to display heading, attitude (pitch and bank) and altitude. The Multi-Function Display (MFD) provides for horizontal flight plan moving map display, nearby traffic monitoring, weather radar, textual weather information and engine monitoring.

Figure 4: Personal and Business Jet Electronic Cockpit

However, the typical panel on the average general aviation cockpit is populated with instruments (lovingly called “steam gauges” shown below in Figure 5) that in many cases were created and installed in these panels before the advent of the 16 and 32 bit microprocessors. Nonetheless, these are the primary instruments general aviation private pilots train on and are pervasive in such a vast number of “affordable” aircraft. These instruments provide all of the bare essentials needed to pilot an aircraft in visual or instrument conditions. These include airspeed, attitude, heading, vertical speed, altimeter, and turn coordinator gauges, as well as certain navigational radio instruments that can be tuned to decades-old ground based navigational radio aids that are still functional throughout the world. These older instruments are mostly redundant to the modern GPS satellite based navigational technology.

Figure 5: Average General Aviation Instrument Panel Cockpit

The average general aviation pilot is faced with a dilemma when thinking of upgrading his piloting capability to more advanced instrumentation. On the one hand, it is nice to have all the instruments packed into the instrument panel that give advanced capabilities to aid in the process of flight

PFD MFD


planning, routing and tracking. However, installing new avionics in-dash is an expensive proposition even with the addition of a basic moving map GPS instrument costing between $10K and $20K (including installation and recertification expense). In addition, there are a number of GA pilots who are simply renting aircraft from flight clubs or airport facilities. Most of these aircraft are not configured with the latest avionics which have modern built in instrument panels. What’s needed is a personal solution that is portable so it can be carried between home, office, hotel, owned and rented airplanes and doesn’t cost nearly as much as the major instrument panel overhaul. It should be acknowledged that this portable Tablet PC solution does not provide all of the capabilities of the aforementioned glass cockpit, but just the addition of a large moving map display integrated with the flight planning and weather software is a very large step in the direction of a compelling alternative to tearing an instrument panel down for an update.

Figure 6 below shows the heads down view of the “electronic kneeboard” which shows the current position of the authors’ aircraft as it departs the Miles City, SD airspace to the east along the pre-planned route from Miles City to the next waypoint (Aberdeen, SD, off the screen to the right). Note that in this position (across the lap) the Tablet PC is fully unobstructed by the flight yoke. The screen is shown lit by a combination of the reflective LED light bars all around the periphery of the LCD screen as well as the ambient daylight of the cockpit.

Figure 6: Tablet PC and Jeppesen FlightMap for Enhanced Situational Awareness

To the left of the moving map display, there are a number of text NAV fields and values that are updated approximately 5 times per second from the GPS unit. These include exact Lat/Lon position information, GPS altitude, ground speed and ETA information to the next waypoint and final destination. In the center of the screen there is a small blue aircraft symbol which denotes the current position on the moving map display. The operator can chose to view the airplane moving across the map, the airplane fixed in the center of the screen while the map moves to the left, or alternatively orienting the view to a “course up” display (the current course is shown as a “north up” display). One very handy tool on the moving map is the extended course centreline which projects the current GPS course out several miles ahead. This gives the pilot a precise heading indication relative to the

GPS NAV INFO

Current

GPS PositionExtended

Course Centerline

Vertical

Profile

SATCOM USB Phone Connection

Ship’s Power Adapter

USB GPS

Connection


desired course. The GPS USB connection is shown (black USB plug) next to the Global Star SATCOM phone connection (white USB plug) which provided all of the external signals and data needed for the various software programs. The GPS unit is shown in Figure 7 below with a small suction cup to stabilize its position on the dash. It performed robustly in many varied flight situations and gave a positive indicator of GPS satellite signal integrity whenever the red status LED was on solid. Occasionally, the GPS status LED started blinking for a few seconds. This was perhaps due to the Global Star SATCOM phone transmission disturbing the sensitive GPS receivers. Once this was recognized, (also indicated by a red ring around the airplane symbol on the moving map display) it was not a major problem to accommodate the small amount of GPS downtime elapsing during a brief uplink connection. Once the SATCOM phone started its download, the GPS unit resumed normal operation after a couple of seconds. Figure 7: GPS USB “dongle” positioned on aircraft glare-shield

Figure 8 to the right shows a zoomed image of the aircraft tracking symbol. The ring around the aircraft shows a radial distance of 1.66nm (1.9 miles) and a 1 minute flight time to the edge of the ring. At this point in the flight, it was determined that a best route due to local visual weather conditions would be to go “off airways” and proceed direct to Aberdeen, SD.

This modification to the flight plan was done with ease using the Tablet PC stylus and the precision visual review afforded by the GPS moving map. Assessment of savings or expense in terms of flight time, fuel and distance was instantly recomputed by the flight planning software. For redundant navigational aid, the older VOR (Very high frequency Omni directional Radio – 112.1MHz at Miles City) stations are also presented on the moving map just as they appear in the paper chart versions. Figure 8: Zoomed Jeppesen FliteMap Moving Map Display


Adverse Weather Avoidance It is an unfortunate reality that flight into deteriorating weather conditions by pilots in light aircraft is the number one killer associated with general aviation. Many pilots are frequently under-equipped to launch into questionable weather conditions and don’t have a clear idea of what sort of weather they might be getting themselves (and their passengers) into. These accidents are also associated with trying to get somewhere (“get-there-itis” syndrome) at a specific time or trying to beat a deteriorating weather situation. Many times the answer isn’t a simple GO/ NO GO considering the varied level of skill, instruments and currency related to weather flying. Judgement is the key to executing a safe flight in these “on the fence” conditions. Good judgement means gathering all of the available facts and making a call or modifying a flight plan to provide a heavy margin of safety over adverse weather.

One relatively inexpensive device to help in obtaining weather while in-flight, is a SATCOM phone. No other inexpensive portable wireless device gives the kind of coast to coast coverage like a SATCOM phone. The cost of operating this type of device is about $500 for the phone and $0.25 to $1.00 per minute for the connect time depending on service options. Additional optimized services provided by weather product companies such as Ocens’ WeatherNet product, can substantially reduce connect time charges. The connect and disconnect process is handled automatically by WeatherNet as it downloads weather images. In the US, there are an abundance of free weather data sites available on the Internet. Unfortunately connecting to the “raw Internet” through a browser can be a painfully slow (and expensive) experience since the SATCOM phone data rate is only 9600 baud. WeatherNet automatically mines the Internet for specific weather data and then serves up compressed versions of this data from the Ocens’ servers that are accessible directly via the SATCOM phone link.

Figure 9: Qualcomm Global Star SATCOM

Figures 10a/b/c below were downloaded during the Oshkosh trip which showed “prognostic” or future weather information valid 12 and 24 hours into the future from the current surface conditions taken at 0600 UTC time on July 30th. These charts show an impending cold front and associated precipitation (and possible T-Storms) in the Oshkosh area.

Figure 10a/b/c: PROG CHARTS forecasting surface conditions July 30th/31st, 2003


For a more real-time view of the current weather, there is NEXRAD data. This Doppler Radar data is collected from a number of major centers throughout the US and all that is needed to download these images to the Tablet PC is a client/server software package such as WeatherNet and the SATCOM phone connection. The cost of downloading the following image in Figure 11 was about $1.25… one dollar for the time to download and $0.25 for the WeatherNet pay-for-what-you-download fee.

This NEXRAD image shows multiple cell areas of heavy precipitation indicated by level 5 (red) radar returns surrounded by level 4 (orange) and level 3 (yellow). All of these areas, plus a healthy keep out zone of 50-100 nm radius from the storm cells, would be highly advised for any general aviation aircraft. This data is at least 5 minutes old at the moment of download and it is also important to observe the trend over several successive images (known as a loop) to determine the likelihood of running into any of these types of storm cell areas. Without knowledge of these cell areas, a pilot flying in IMC can easily blunder into an embedded level 5 storm cell which can literally tear the wings off a typical general aviation aircraft.

Figure 11: Green Bay, WI NEXRAD Doppler Radar Weather Image

There is no substitute for looking out the window when flying in mixed visual and instrument weather. The cloud types shown in Figure 12 would be consistent with the light blue to light green areas shown in the Madison area on the NEXRAD image in Figure 11. Putting the two pictures together gives a pilot good decision making data on which to base a course correction or perhaps a precautionary landing to allow a frontal system to pass.


Figure 12: Mixed VMC and IMC weather on flight path altitude

Once the trend data on the NEXRAD images show storm cells moving out of the area, then it is safe to resume flight to the desired destination. In this case, Figure 13 shows the midday arrival weather at Oshkosh landing on runway 36R.

Figure 13: Completion of a Well Planned and Executed Flight Plan


Datalink E-mail Another very useful capability, provided by the folks at Ocens, was in-flight e-mail capability in the cockpit on the Tablet PC. Utilizing the same data link channel on the Global Star SATCOM phone (9600 baud) used to download weather graphics, the authors were able to send and receive text e-mails from colleagues and family members at various phases of the long cross country flight. In addition, for the week spent at the Oshkosh aviation show, there were no facilities for e-mail communication on the ground. Occasionally connecting the Global Star phone to interact on e-mail was a great way to stay in touch with many people who were following the progress of this trip.

Figure 14: Xgate E-mail Program

The Xgate e-mail program works by providing a local (local to Tablet PC) server capability to cache e-mail transactions offline. Then when the user is ready to both check for new mail and send the current e-mail, hitting the “GO” button rapidly connects to the Global Star network, Ocens e-mail server and fires e-mail text in both directions. The connect time was literally only a few seconds for even a moderate amount of text sent to both pilots’ Inbox accounts on Outlook Express (e-mail “client” program built into Windows XP).


Conclusions Another advantage of the Tablet PC portable solution is reviewing the many sources of weather information that can be found on the Internet when at home or in a stay-over hotel with high speed Internet connections. This allows a much more rapid and comprehensive survey of the current and projected weather outlook as well as fine tuning of the current flight plan and filing electronically with the FAA. Figure 15 shows weather assessment and flight planning that was all being completed solely on the Tablet PC during the return trip from Oshkosh.

Figure 15: Weather Assessment and Flight Planning at a Stop-over Hotel

Fujitsu and Microsoft have clearly advanced the state of the art of computing to a level where an easy to use tool has been created for the average general aviation pilot. It is envisioned that large numbers of Tablet PC’s will be seen in the cockpits of the future. The Tablet PC, as an aviation tool, should become even more useful as networks such as WiFi become wide-spread in pilot planning facilities.


The author would like to thank Fujitsu, Microsoft, and Ocens for making the Tablet PC Aviation Technology Review possible at this year’s 100 year celebration of powered flight.

Steve Dame is an instrument rated pilot, technology entrepreneur, former Chief Technology Officer of a business jet avionics company. He holds a masters degree in EE, several patents and patents pending in the music, entertainment and avionics businesses. Mr. Dame is president of Virtual DSP Corporation which specializes in developing turnkey embedded computing and digital signal processing solutions for a wide variety of industries. He can be reached at [email protected]. Jim Karr is a private pilot and President of a small flying club. He is a retired MIS manager from the Telecommunications Industry. Mr. Karr was President of the Hemophilia Foundation of Washington for many years and served on the Board of Directors for the Puget Sound Blood Center for ten years. He is an active volunteer with the Center for Wooden Boats and his hobbies include collecting antique automobiles. He can be reached at [email protected].

This white paper is for informational purposes only. VIRTUAL DSP MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS DOCUMENT.

Complying with all applicable copyright laws is the responsibility of the user. Without limiting the rights under copyright, no part of this document may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), or for any purpose, without the express written permission of Virtual DSP Corporation.

© 2003, Virtual DSP Corporation. All rights reserved.

The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

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