Practice device

Claim 2

A pilot board adapted to be used in simulated practice for proper runway selection and aircraft approach to said runway for landing, consisting essentially of a disk member and a base member, means uniting said members together for relative rotary indexing of one with respect to the other about an axis coinciding with the axis for said disk member, orientation means to establish a variety of selected rotary orientations of said disk member with respect to said base member, said orientation means comprising at least one visibly distinct orientation mark on each said member at a radially disposed location from said axis, and a simulated runway layout visibly distinct on said disk member, with each runway end marked with a visibly distinct runway approach code figure, each one of said code figures being different from the others, all of said aforementioned visibly distinct elements being viewable from one face of said pilot board, said relative rotary indexing of said members being such as to allow selection of a variety of rotary orientation between said members to thereby present a variety of problem conditions for proper runway selection and aircraft approach to said selected runway for landing.

Claim 3

The pilot board of claim 1 additionally comprising a visibly distinct indicator on said base member.

Claim 4

The pilot board of claim 2 wherein said visibly distinct indicator identifies a compass direction.

Claim 5

The pilot board of claim 1, wherein said orientation means consists essentially of visibly distinct orientation marks on said memberS, one of said members carrying at least said one visibly-distinct orientation mark and the other of said members carrying a plurality of such marks annularly spaced at radially disposed locations from said axis, each one of said annularly spaced orientation marks being different from the others, said relative rotary indexing of said members with respect to each other being such as to permit positioning of said one such orientation mark by any one of said annularly spaced orientation marks for a said selected orientation.

Claim 6

The pilot board of claim 1 wherein said base member comprises a flat peripheral flange extending radially outwardly beyond the periphery of said disk member.

Claim 7

The pilot board of claim 5 wherein the means uniting said disk member and said base member for selected rotary orientation comprises interlocked male and female parts of said members.

Claim 8

The pilot board of claim 1 wherein said disk member is plastic and wherein said visibly distinct elements thereon are printed.

Claim 9

The pilot board of claim 1 wherein said disk member is metallic.

Claim 10

The pilot board of claim 1 wherein said relative rotary indexing between members is friction-biased to oppose free spinning motion of one of said members with respect to the other.

Claim 11

A controller board in combination with a pilot board, said pilot board comprising a disk member and a base member united for relative rotary indexing therebetween, with means to establish selected rotary orientations of the disk member to the base member, and the disk member being equipped with a simulated runWay layout having a different runway approach code figure at each runway end, said controller board comprising: i. a disk unit, ii. a base unit, iii. means uniting said units together for relative rotary indexing of one with respect to the other about an axis coinciding with the axis for said disk unit. iv. means to establish a variety of selected rotary orientations of one of said units with respect to the other of said units, corresponding to the means to establish selected orientations between said disk member and said base member of said pilot board, v. a plurality of annularly spaced view sites on said one unit at locations equidistantly radially disposed from said axis of rotary indexing, the number of said view sites being equal to two times the number of runways of said layout on said pilot board, one of said view sites being at each radial location determined by making the radial angle between said radial location and a predetermined mark on said one unit equal to an angle on said pilot board formed at the intersection between a runway and a line parallel to a radial line through a corresponding predetermined mark on said disk member of said pilot board, vi. a visibly distinct runway approach code figure associated with each said view site, each said code figure corresponding in character to the runway approach code figure at the end of the runway on said pilot board to which said view site corresponds, and vii. an annular sequence of numerals on the other of said units at radially disposed locations permitting view of the same at said view sites at selected orientations between said units, said numerals being representations of graduated compass directions, said numerals being so arranged that, when said units are in selected orientation corresponding to a selected orientation between said members of said pilot board, the numeral viewed at a selected view site constitutes an indicator of a compass direction toward which an aircraft should land and the proper approach end of a simulated runway on said pilot board for effecting that landing direction carries a runway approach code figure corresponding to the runway approach code figure associated with said selected view site.

Claim 12

A controller board in combination with a pilot board, said pilot board comprising a disk member and a base member united for relative rotary indexing therebetween, with means to establish selected rotary orientations of the disk member to the base member, and the disk member being equipped with a simulated runWay layout having a different runway approach code figure at each runway end, said controller board comprising: i. a disk unit, ii. a base unit, iii. means uniting said units together for relative rotary indexing of one with respect to the other about an axis coinciding with the axis for said disk unit. iv. means to establish a variety of selected rotary orientations of one of said units with respect to the other of said units, corresponding to the means to establish selected orientations between said disk member and said base member of said pilot board, v. a plurality of annularly spaced view sites on said one unit at locations equidistantly radially disposed from said axis of rotary indexing, the number of said view sites being equal to two times the number of runways of said layout on said pilot board, one of said view sites being at each radial location determined by making the radial angle between said radial location and a predetermined mark on said one unit equal to an angle on said pilot board formed at the intersection between a runway and a line parallel to a radial line through a corresponding predetermined mark on said disk member of said pilot board, vi. a visibly distinct runway approach code figure associated with each said view site, each said code figure corresponding in character to the runway approach code figure at the end of the runway on said pilot board to which said view site corresponds, and vii. an annular sequence of numerals on the other of said units at radially disposed locations permitting view of the same at said view sites at selected orientations between said units, said numerals being representations of graduated compass directions, said numerals being so arranged that, when said units are in selected orientation corresponding to a selected orientation between said members of said pilot board, the numeral viewed at a selected view site constitutes an indicator of a compass direction toward which an aircraft should land and the proper approach end of a simulated runway on said pilot board for effecting that landing direction carries a runway approach code figure corresponding to the runway approach code figure associated with said selected view site.

Claim 13

The combination of claim 10 wherein the controller board has a spinner mounted for relatively free spinning motion about the axis for said rotary indexing of said controller board units, said spinner serving at rest as a pointer for selection of a view site and the numeral indicating compass direction as observed thereat.

Claim 14

The combination of claim 10 wherein the orientation means of the pilot board consists essentially of a single orientation mark on one said member of said pilot board and a plurality of different annularly spaced orientation marks on the other said member of said pilot board; and wherein the orientation means of said controller board corresponds to the orientation means of said pilot board in that the orientation marks and the radial location thereof on said one unit and said other unit of said controller board correspond respectively to the orientation marks and radial location thereof on said disk member and said base member of said pilot board.

Claim 15

The combination of claim 10 wherein the controller board is additionally equipped with an aircraft indicator rotatably indexable about said axis, whereby the approach direction of an assumed aircraft to the simulated runway layout of said pilot board may temporaRily be established on said controller board.

Claim 16

The combination of claim 10 wherein the controller board additionally comprises means for effecting rotary shifting of a. said annular sequence of numerals representative of compass directions in a manner independent of b. orientation between said disk unit and said base unit.

Claim 17

The combination of claim 10 wherein said other of said units of said controller board comprises an orientation part and a compass part, said orientation part carrying at least one fixed orientation mark thereon, said compass part carrying said annular sequence of numerals representative of compass directions thereon, and means for effecting rotary shifting of said orientation part and compass part with respect to each other about an axis coinciding with said axis for rotary indexing between said disk unit and said base unit.