User:RandyRostie/Aircraft Systems

Aircraft Instrumentation
There are two parts to any instrument system—the sensing mechanism and the display mechanism. Information is relayed from the sensors to the indicators via electricity, or direct pressure sensing via pneumatic or oil-filler tubes.

There are three basic kinds of instruments classified by the job they perform:
 * flight instruments
 * engine instruments
 * navigation instruments

There are also miscellaneous gauges and indicators that provide information that do not fall into these classifications, especially on large or complex aircraft. such as Flight control position, cabin environmental systems, electrical power, and auxiliary power units (APUs) for example, are all monitored and controlled from the cockpit. All may be regarded as position/condition instruments since they usually report the position of a certain moveable component on the aircraft, or the condition of various aircraft components or systems not included in the first three groups.

Flight Instruments
There are six main flight instruments in an old-style analog cluster. The most common arrangement is referred to as a T arrangement, with Airspeed, Artificial Horizon, and Altimeter across the top and heading indicator at the bottom. The other two instruments is the turn coordinator and vertical speed indicator.

Engine Instruments
The usual engine instruments are quantity, pressure, and temperature indicators. They also include measuring engine speed. The basic engine indicating instruments are Oil pressure and temperature, Cylinder Head Temperature, Additional instruments include engine tachometer, propeller tachometer, Manifold Absolute Pressure, Exhaust Gas Temperature, fuel and oil levels.

On the right are the old fashioned analog gauges, and the left is a modern Engine-Indicating and Crew-Alerting System (EICAS) found on a modern airliner or small jet, which only displays the information the pilot needs to see. This also replaces the Annunciator panel found on older planes, where a system failure lights up a corresponding indicator button and an indicator that said what kind of failure it was, IE. Master Warning if an amber warning went off, and Master Caution if a red critical system warning light is lit.

Navigation Instruments
The navigation instruments include the basic 'wet' compass, Gyro Compass and Heading Indicator gauge, VOR Course Deviation Indicator(CDI) Radio direction finder(RDF) and Automatic Direction Finder (ADF) indicator combined with NAV/COM radios set to the frequencies of VOR and ADF stations. , Horizontal Situation Indicator(HSI) up to a Electronic Attitude Director Indicator (EADI), or Electronic Flight Instrument System (EFIS) The older navigation gauges to the right of the 'basic six' are the Dual VOR/ADF Course Deviation Indicator(CDI) (Nav1) which also serves as the Instrument Landing System(ILS) Localizer and Glidescope indicator, a single VOR CDI(Nav2) and an ADF Indicator. with the VOR NAV1 and NAV2 radios, and ADF receiver which can be tuned to an ADF frequency or a non-directional (radio) beacon (NDB). The Instrument Landing System (ILS) is used to land the aircraft in poor visibility.

The same radio navigation is used in the Cirrus Perspective Glass Cockpit, but is presented in a more user-friendly manner, combined with modern GPS navigation. You can navigate a flight completely from runway to runway with GPS, but you still need to set up the NAV-COM radios for ILS landings.