To facilitate the interpretation of DAVE-ML packages, the following conventions are proposed. Failure to follow any of these should be noted prominently in the data files and any cover documentation.
It is recommended that all force and moments be considered to act around a defined reference point, given in aircraft coordinates. It is further recommended that all subsystem models (aerodynamic, propulsive, alighting gear) provide total forces & moments about this reference point and leave the transfer of moments to the center of mass to the equations of motion.
It is recommended that a vehicle's flight dynamic reactions be modeled, at least at the highest level, as aerodynamic, propulsive, and landing/arresting/launch gear models. This is common practice in most aircraft simulation environments we've seen.
The recommended way of representing dates in DAVE-ML documentation, especially date attribute and creation date elements, is numerically in the order yyyy-mm-dd. Thus, July 15, 2003 is given as 2003-07-15. This is suggested since such dates sort with minimal effort, and is a common format on UNIX computer systems.
The following list of sign convention notation is recommended for adoption. Note the sign convention for most quantities is already fixed by the AIAA Recommended Practice [ AIAA92], so this is actually a list of abbreviations for typical sign conventions:
Common DAVE-ML sign convention notation
| Acronym | Meaning |
|---|---|
| +AFT | Positive aft |
| +ANR | Positive aircraft nose right |
| +ANU | Positive aircraft nose up |
| +CWFN | Positive clockwise from north |
| +DN | Positive down |
| +E | Positive eastward |
| +FWD | Positive forward |
| +LFT | Positive left |
| +N | Positive northward |
| +OUT | Positive outward |
| +POS | Always positive |
| +RCL | Positive right of centerline |
| +RT | Positive right |
| +RWD | Positive right wing down |
| +TED | Positive trailing edge down |
| +TEL | Positive trailing edge left |
| +THR | Positive beyond threshold |
| +UP | Positive up |