The Artificial Horizon

Introduction
The artificial horizon (AH) provides the pilot with information in terms of the
aircraft’s attitude both in pitch and roll. It is a primary instrument, replacing
the natural horizon in poor visibility. The attitude display consists of a
miniature aircraft shape or ‘gull-wing’ (tail view) painted or engraved centrally
on the inside of the glass face of the instrument, and therefore fixed to the
instrument case and the actual aircraft. Behind this representation of the
aircraft is the horizon bar, linked to the gyro in such a way that the bar is gyro-
stabilized parallel to the true horizon. The artificial horizon may be suction or
electrically driven. It is also known as a gyro horizon and attitude indicator.

Construction
The artificial horizon uses an earth gyro in which the spin axis is maintained in,
or tied to, the vertical by earth’s gravity. This means that the plane of the rotor
rotation is horizontal, so providing the stable lateral and longitudinal
references required.
Artificial Horizon Indications
Figure 13.1 shows the three axes of the gyro: XX, YY and ZZ. Because the gyro is
tied to the vertical, note that the axis XX (the spin axis) will remain earth
vertical and therefore the axis YY will be earth horizontal when the aircraft is
straight and level.
Pitch
Figure 13.1 shows the level-flight attitude display and two views of the
instrument with the case removed.
In Figure 13.2 a nose-up attitude (of 10 degrees) is shown. The pitch-up
movement has rotated the case together with the attached outer gimbal ring
about the lateral axis YY. As this occurs, a guide pin protruding from the
stabilized inner gimbal forces the horizon bar arm down. The horizon bar is
now below the gull-wing producing the nose-up indication. (Figure 13.5 shows
the gimbal rings and the pitch-indication linkage in greater detail) The three
views in Figure 13.3 relate to a pitch-down situation. Note that the angle of
pitch may be selected using the pitch markers shown.

Roll
In roll, as with pitch, the rigidity of the vertical gyro provides the stable attitude
reference. As the aircraft rolls (about the longitudinal axis - ZZ in the diagrams)
the instrument case and the gull-wing will rotate about the stabilised gyro
rotor and gimbal system.
The gyroscopic rigidity of the spinning rotor holds the horizon bar in the rolling
plane so that the amount and direction of bank are displayed by the gull-wing
relative to the horizon bar. A more accurate indication of the amount of bank
is given by a pointer attached to the outer gimbal and showing bank angle on a
scale painted on the face of the instrument.
Limitations
The amount the case can move relative to the gyro is controlled by fixed stops.
With older designs, typical limits are ± 60° in pitch and 110° each way in roll. In
modern instruments there is complete freedom in roll and up to 85° (plus or
minus) in pitch. If the limits are exceeded, the gyro ‘topples’, giving violent and
erratic movements of the horizon bar. Unless a fast erection system is
incorporated, accurate indications will not be obtained until the gyro has re-
erected itself over a period of 10 to 15 minutes.

Control Systems
The rotor assembly is made very slightly bottom-heavy in order to keep down
the time taken for initial erection when the gyro is first started up, but a
complex control system is required to maintain the rotor axis vertical in flight.
A suction or air driven artificial horizon exhausts air through four slots which
are normally half covered by four pendulous vanes. Electric artificial horizons
use levelling / mercury switches and torque motors.

The Air Driven Artificial Horizon

In the air driven artificial horizon an engine-driven suction pump (or venturi
tube in some light aircraft) is used to create a suction of about 4 inches of
mercury in the instrument case. Replacement air, drawn in by this suction via a
filter, is ducted through the outer and inner gimbals to enter the rotor case as
a jet which spins the rotor at up to 15000 rpm. After driving the rotor, the air
passes into the instrument case through slots at the base of the rotor housing.

Control System
The control system of the air driven artificial horizon consists of four slots and
four pendulous (hanging) vanes at the base of the rotor housing. The vanes
hang down so that when the rotor axis is vertical each slot is half covered by its
vane, and four equal jets of air emerge from the slots, fore an aft and left and
right, as in Figure 13.6. Because the four jets are of equal strength but in
opposite directions no force is exerted on the gyro and therefore no
precession occurs - the gyro rotor remaining vertical.

However, the opposing vanes are fixed to a common spindle so that the four
vanes operate as two pairs. The positioning of the vanes is such that if the
rotor axis wanders from the vertical, one vane will hang clear of its slot,
allowing unrestricted airflow, while the opposite slot is completely obstructed
by its vane. The resulting unbalanced airflow precesses the gyro and corrects
the tilt, returning the gyro axis to the vertical. Exactly how this correction is
achieved is shown in Figure 13.7.
The gyro has wandered from the vertical so that vanes A and C are not affected
and remain half covering their slots. However, vanes B and D, on a common
spindle, hang down so that slot B is now closed and D is wide open. A strong jet
exits through D causing an equal and opposite reaction ‘R’ on the gyro. This
reaction is precessed through 90° in the direction of rotor spin (anticlockwise
when viewed from the top) and acts in the direction of ‘P’ which restores the
gyro axis to the vertical.

Acceleration Error in the Air Driven Artificial Horizon

The control system of the air driven artificial horizon depends on the
pendulous vanes being affected by the earth’s gravity. However, the vanes will
be affected by any acceleration, not just that due to gravity.
When an aircraft accelerates in a level attitude (such as during the take-off
run) a false nose up, right wing down, or climbing right hand turn indication
will result. The pitch error is due to the effect of acceleration on the lateral
pendulous vanes. The roll error is due to the inertia of the bottom-heavy rotor
housing. These effects are now considered in more depth.

Pitch Error - During acceleration, the lateral vanes lag, swinging back towards
the pilot, opening the starboard slot and closing the port slot. This results in a
reaction ‘R’ which acts to port (see Figure 13.8). By the rule of precession the
effect on the gyro is as if the direction of application of R had been moved 90°
in the direction of rotor spin (anticlockwise). The gyro will now be precessed
out of vertical with the base moving backwards towards the pilot. As shown in
Figure 13.8, this movement is transmitted via the guide pin and horizon bar
arm to bring the horizon bar below the gull-wing giving a nose-up indication.

 Roll Error - Due to inertia, the weighted base of the rotor housing tries
to lag during acceleration. However, this force will be precessed,
resulting in the base of the rotor housing moving to starboard and the
gyro axis precessing out of the vertical (see Figure 13.9). This rotates the
whole rotor / gimbal assembly about the longitudinal axis to give a right
wing down indication.
Deceleration will cause a nose-down, left wing low error, the opposite of the
acceleration error indication. These errors assume that the rotor is rotating
anticlockwise when viewed from the top, which is the case for British air driven
artificial horizons. Most electric horizons and some American air driven
horizons have clockwise rotor spin, giving opposite errors.

Turning Errors in the Air Driven Artificial Horizon

Whenever an aircraft turns there must be an acceleration towards the centre
of the turn (centripetal force). Since the pendulous vanes are now affected by
a horizontal acceleration as well as acceleration due to gravity, errors in pitch
and roll indications will occur. During the turns the centrifugal force will act on
the fore and aft pendulous vanes (‘erection’ error) and weighted base of the
rotor housing (‘pendulosity’ error). The errors are complex and change as the
turn progresses, cancelling out after a 360° turn. The magnitude of the errors
varies with speed, rate of turn and type of horizon. For a chosen speed and
rate of turn, the errors can be compensated for by tilting the top of the rotor
axis slightly forward (for erection error) and slightly to the left (for pendulosity
error).
However, in an uncorrected instrument the following errors will occur.
(Assume a classic instrument - air driven with the gyro rotating anticlockwise
when viewed from above).

The tilts are of the order of 2°. The setting of the horizon bar has to be similarly
modified to indicate correctly in level flight. Small residual errors occur,
particularly if the speed and rate of turn are not those for which compensation
has been applied, but the errors are very much smaller than they would be had
no compensation been made.

Rigidity
High rotor speeds in suction horizons of up to 15000 rpm result in high
gyroscopic inertia. With electric horizons, speeds of 22500 rpm are typical
giving even greater rigidity. Because of the high inertia, precession rates are
low and therefore once a horizon top.

Serviceability Checks
Before Flight - Check that the horizon bar takes up a laterally level position
with the correct pitch indication for the aircraft type, and that this indication is
maintained when taxiing.

In Flight - The artificial horizon should give an immediate and correct indication
of any change in pitch or roll attitude.

The Electric Artificial Horizon

The main advantage of an electrical artificial horizon over the air driven
horizon is its greater rigidity due to its faster spin rate. This greater rigidity
results in increased accuracy due to reduced errors. The basic principle of the
instrument is the same as the air driven horizon. The vertical gyro is still tied by
earth’s gravity, but by mercury / levelling switches and torque motors rather
than the pendulous vanes of the air driven horizon.

Electric Artificial Horizon Control System

The gravity-operated control system consists of mercury / levelling switches
(which are fixed to the base of the rotor) and electric torque motors. If a
levelling switch is not level, the mercury liquid ball moves from its central
position and closes the circuit to drive its torque motor. The torque motor
provides the force which is precessed to return the gyro axis to the vertical.
There are two levelling switches, one to sense pitch and one to sense roll.
They activate the pitch and roll torque motors respectively which precess the
gyro back to the vertical as soon as it starts to wander.
Because of the 90° precession rule, the torque motor on the side of the inner
gimbal corrects wander in the rolling plane (applying torque round the lateral
axis to produce rotation about the longitudinal axis). Likewise the pitch torque
motor is on the outer (longitudinal) gimbal so that the precession is about the
lateral axis to correct for pitch.
This control system, like that of the suction horizon, is designed to compensate
for turning errors by maintaining the rotor axis slightly tilted away from the
true vertical and having the horizon bar compensated by a similar amount. The
amount and direction of this tilt depends on the particular model of
instrument in use.

Acceleration Errors in the Electric Horizon

Acceleration errors are minimal in the electric artificial horizon for the
following reasons:
 The high rotor speed of an electric artificial horizon results in very high
gyro rigidity and therefore very low precession rates. There is therefore
less potential for the gyro to move out of the earth’s vertical.
 The rotor housing is less bottom heavy in the electric artificial horizon
and therefore roll error is reduced while accelerating.
 Pitch and roll cut-out switches. When an aircraft in a level attitude
accelerates the pitch levelling switch will falsely complete the circuit as
the mercury ‘ball’ moves back in its tube (due to inertia). As this would
then result in the pitch torque motor falsely precessing the gyro out of
the vertical, a pitch cut-out switch is included in the circuit which
activates when an acceleration of 0.18g or greater is detected. Similarly
in a turn the roll mercury switch would falsely activate the roll torque
motor. A cutout is therefore incorporated in the circuit which is
activated at 10 degrees angle of bank.

Fast Erection System

In many electric horizons a fast erect system is included to give rapid initial
erection and quick re-erection should the instrument topple due to exceeding
the operating limits. Quoting typical figures, the normal erection rate of 4° per
minute is increased to 120° per minute by pushing the fast erection knob on
the face of the instrument. This action increases the voltage to the erection
torque motors. One of the advantages of having a fast erection system is that
the pendulosity (bottom-heaviness) of the gyro can be reduced, so decreasing
the turning and acceleration errors.
Note: When airborne, the fast erection knob can only be used successfully in
level flight with no acceleration. During acceleration or a turn, the liquid level
switches would be ‘off-centre’, and operation of the fast-erection system
would align the rotor axis with a false vertical.
Extra Questions
1) Among the flight control instruments, the artificial horizon plays an
essential part. It uses a gyroscope with :Note : in this question, the
degrees of freedom of a gyro are determined by the number of gimbal
rings it comprises.
a) two degrees of freedom, whose axis is oriented and continously
maintained to local vertical by an automatic erecting system.
b) two degrees of freedom, whose horizontal axis corresponding to a
reference direction is maintained in a horizontal plane by an
automatic erecting system
c) one degree of freedom, whose horizontal axis is maintained in a
horizontal plane by an automatic erecting system
d) one degree of freedom, whose vertical axis oriented in the
direction of the real vertical to the location is maintained in this
direction by an automatic erecting system

2) When an aircraft has turned 270 degrees with a constant attitude and
bank, the pilot observes the following on a classic artificial horizon :
a) too much nose-up and bank too high.
b) too much nose-up and bank too low.
c) attitude and bank correct.
d) too much nose-up and bank correct.
3) When an aircraft has turned 360 degrees with a constant attitude and
bank, the pilot observes the following on a classic artificial horizon :
a) attitude and bank correct
b) too much nose-up and bank too low
c) too much nose-up and bank correct
d) too much nose-up and bank too high

4) When an aircraft has turned 90 degrees with a constant attitude and

bank, the pilot observes the following on a classic artificial horizon :
a) too much nose-up and bank too low
b) attitude and bank correct
c) too much nose-up and bank correct
d) too much nose-up and bank too high

5) A gravity type erector is used in a vertical gyro device to correct errors

on :
a) an artificial horizon
b) a directional gyro unit
c) a turn indicator
d) a gyromagnetic indicator
6) A gravity type erector is used in a vertical gyro device to correct errors
on :
a) an artificial horizon
b) a directional gyro unit
c) a turn indicator
d) a gyromagnetic indicator

7) During an acceleration phase at constant attitude, the resetting principle

of the artificial horizon results in the horizon bar indicating a :
a) nose-up attitude
b) nose-down attitude
c) constant attitude
d) nose-down followed by a nose-up attitude
8) A Stand-by-horizon or emergency attitude indicator:
a) Contains its own separate gyro
b) Is automatically connected to the primary vertical gyro if the
alternator fails
c) Is fully independent of external energy resources in an emergency
situation
d) Only works of there is a complete electrical failure

9) A gravity erector system is used to correct the errors on :

a) an artificial horizon.
b) a directional gyro
c) a turn indicator.
d) a gyromagnetic compass.