Systems Guide

A318/A319/A320/A321
Professional
SYSTEMS
Systems guide
Vol
4
04-03-10
11 July 2018
The autoflight system is part of the Flight Management System (FMS). The FMS (including autopilots and
autothrust system) is made up by two Flight Management Guidance Computers (FMGCs) and two Flight
Augmentation Computers (FACs).
• Flight Management provides navigation, performance optimization and display management.
• Flight Guidance provides autopilot commands (sent to the flight control computers), flight
director commands (sent to the PFD) and thrust commands (sent to the autothrust systems).
• Flight Augmentation provides flight envelope calculations, turn coordination and yaw damping.
PILOT INTERFACES
FLIGHT CONTROL UNIT
The FCU is on the center of the glareshield and four knobs provide control for:
• Airspeed
• Heading (or track) or navigation modes
• Climb or descent modes and/or
• Vertical speed (or flight path angle)
There are two modes possible for airspeed, heading and vertical speed. Switching between modes is done
by pulling (right click) the knob.
• Selected Functions
o In selected mode the pilot controls speed and lateral/vertical navigation. After pulling
the knob the pilot can rotate the knob to set the desired value. When the knob is
pushed (left click) the current value for that function is inserted.
• Managed Functions
FACs
FMGCs
FMS
FLIGHT MANAGEMENT
FLIGHT GUIDANCE
FLIGHT AUGMENTATION