Electronic Instrument Systems EIS

Modern technology has enabled some significant changes in the layout of flight instrumentation on most aircraft currently in service.  The biggest change has been the introduction of Electronic Instrument systems.  These systems have meant that many complex Electro-mechanical instruments have now been replaced by TV type colour displays.  These systems also allow the exchange of images between display units in the case of display failures.

There are many different Electronic Instrument Systems, including:

i.    Electronic Flight Instrument System (EFIS).

ii.   Engine Indicating & Crew Alerting System (EICAS).

iii.  Electronic Centralised Aircraft Monitoring (ECAM).   

The Electronic Instrument System (EIS) also allows the flight crew to configure the instrument layout by allowing manual transfer of the Primary Flight Display (PFD) with the Navigation Display (ND) and the secondary Electronic Centralised Aircraft Monitoring (ECAM) display with the ND.

As well as a manual transfer, the system will automatically transfer displays when either the PFD or the primary ECAM display fails.  The PFD is automatically transferred onto the corresponding ND, with the ECAM secondary display used for the primary ECAM display.

The system will also automatically transfer the primary ECAM information onto the ND if a double failure of the ECAM display system occurs.