Advanced pilot assistance to perform oil rig approaches

Abstract

This paper relates to the Navigation and Automatic Flight Control Systems modifications to automate the oil rig approach procedures in order to decrease the pilot workload as well as to increase the flight safety while following the civil regulations applied to RNP approaches. The following topics are addressed: operational needs, safety aspects, guidance concept, system design, automation of the IMC part of the approach, visual segment management up to the oil rig as well as certification aspects. RIG’N FLY is a highly integrated, quite intuitive avionic system providing significant value for the end users. It reduces the crew workload by 70% where the pilot has to tune the proposed path and to monitor the automatic guidance. The system, which has been certified on H225, is currently under deployment on other helicopters of the AH fleet.