Cockpit Display Systems Questions and Answers

Answer: A

Correct answer: Both A and R are true, and R is the correct explanation of A

Both statements are true and the reason explains the placement. Mode confusion - the crew believing the automation is in a mode other than the one it is actually in - has contributed to a number of accidents, and it arises because the automation's state is not obvious from the aircraft's behaviour alone.

Placing the flight mode annunciation prominently at the top of the primary flight display puts the automation's actual state where the crew is already looking, so that a mode change is noticed rather than inferred. The design answers the hazard directly.

Answer: B

Correct answer: 1 and 2 only

Statement 1 is correct: the primary flight display brings attitude, airspeed, altitude and heading together on one screen. Statement 2 is correct: their arrangement preserves the basic T, so the scan learned on mechanical instruments transfers directly.

Statement 3 is false. Engine parameters and alert messages belong on a separate engine and alerting display. Keeping them off the primary flight display is deliberate: it is the most heavily scanned screen on the flight deck, and every symbol added to it competes with the rest.

Answer: C

Correct answer: 1 and 2 only

Statement 1 is correct: enhanced vision images the real scene with an infrared, millimetre wave or low-light sensor. Statement 2 is correct: synthetic vision draws the scene from a terrain and obstacle database.

Statement 3 is false, and it is the essential limitation of synthetic vision. The system can only render what its database holds, so a vehicle, another aircraft or a newly erected obstruction appears nowhere - and the picture gives no indication that anything is absent. Only a sensor can reveal it.

Answer: D

Correct answer: 1 and 2 only

Statement 1 is correct: a single symbol generator commonly drives several screens, so its failure removes more than one. Statement 2 is correct: reversion moves lost content onto a surviving screen, which is what the switching exists for.

Statement 3 is false, and it inverts the whole purpose of the standby. Standby instruments run from independent sensors, independent power and their own display precisely so that no failure of the main system's sensors, generators or busses can take them with it.

Answer: A

Correct answer: 1 and 2 only

Statement 1 is correct: a red warning requires immediate action, typically within a few seconds, and is usually accompanied by an aural alert. Statement 2 is correct: under the dark cockpit principle nothing is annunciated when all systems are normal and correctly configured.

Statement 3 is false, and collapses a distinction the alerting scheme depends on. An amber caution requires timely action - the order of tens of seconds - not the immediate response a warning demands. The two colours exist precisely to separate those time régimes at a glance.

Answer: B

Correct answer: A-1, B-2, C-3, D-4

Each display is matched to its content. The primary flight display (A) carries attitude, airspeed, altitude and heading (1) in the basic T. The navigation display (B) carries route, map, weather and traffic (2).

The engine and alerting display (C) carries engine parameters with prioritised alerts (3). The integrated standby unit (D) provides an independent attitude, speed and altitude reference (4) - a compressed version of the primary flight display's core content, on its own sensors and power, for use when the rest is gone.

Answer: C

Correct answer: A-1, B-2, C-3, D-4

Each colour takes its conventional meaning. Red (A) is a warning requiring immediate action (1); amber (B) a caution requiring timely action (2); green (C) a normal or engaged condition (3); magenta (D) the active flight plan leg (4).

The scheme's value lies in its consistency: because red and amber are reserved strictly for warnings and cautions, either colour appearing anywhere on the flight deck carries the same urgency without the crew having to read what it says.

Answer: D

The first two belong to head-up displays and the last two to display management generally. Collimation and conformality work together, since a symbol must be both focused at infinity and correctly placed to overlay the world.

Answer: A

Correct answer: A-1, B-2, C-3, D-4

Each failure is matched to its consequence, and the list is ordered by severity. One display unit failing loses one screen, recovered by reversion (1). One symbol generator failing loses up to two, with the survivor driving the critical ones (2).

Both generators failing loses all four screens, leaving the standby instruments (3), and a total electrical failure loses them all with only the battery-powered standby remaining (4). The progression is graceful degradation: each further failure removes capability in an anticipated way rather than all at once.

Answer: B

Correct answer: Engine torque

Engine torque is not part of the basic T. The T comprises attitude at the centre, with airspeed to its left, altitude to its right and heading below - the four parameters needed to fly the aircraft, arranged so that the scan radiates from the attitude indicator.

Engine parameters belong on a separate engine and alerting display. The separation is deliberate: the primary flight display is scanned constantly, so anything not needed for immediate control of the flight path is kept off it.