Description

The Flight Path Vector (FPV) is a visual indication on an aircraft's Primary Flight Display (PFD) that shows where the aircraft is going relative to the horizon.

FPV is the actual path on which an aircraft is flying. This is distinct from pitch angle, which for a given FPV, can vary with aircraft configuration, weight, and speed. FPV can indicate a climb or descent, or level flight. In PFD symbology, it is normally depicted as a circle with tick marks representing the wings and tail of an aircraft.

The FPV derives data from an aircraft's Inertial Reference System (IRS), and thus is not affected by malfunctions such as pitot tube icing that impact Air Data Computers (ADCs).

Pilots find the FPV useful because it displays in real time the flight performance of an aircraft. It allows crews to see at a glance if the aircraft is climbing, descending, or drifting off course. If airspeed indications become unreliable or there is other instrumentation failure, pilots can maintain level flight by keeping the FPV on the horizon. They can also estimate angle of climb or descent by the displacement of the FPV above or below the horizon line.