The general field of the invention is that of methods for displaying the geographical situation of an aircraft in flight on a visual display device. The geographical situation comprises a cartographic representation of the terrain flown over by the aircraft. Said geographical situation comprises two main display modes, known as “Arc” and “Rose”. The switch from the first mode to the second mode is made at least by means of a first step of selecting a model representing the position of the aircraft at the current time and arranged in the first mode and a second step of moving said model towards the position occupied in the second mode. The movement of the model causes the movement of the cartographic representation of the terrain being flown over, the steps of selection and movement being accomplished using a human-machine interface, which can be a graphic cursor control device or a touch-sensitive interface.