Piper Announces First GA Aircraft with Autoland Capability

This is a seriously impressive bit of software engineering. It seems as simple as &quot;push a button&quot; to the layman but what happens when:<p><pre><code> There is a thunderstorm between the airport and the runway The nearest runway is closed due to a blizzard There is a mountain between the normal 3-degree glide-slope and the runway, an &quot;offset approach&quot; There is a 40-knot crosswind You have an engine out </code></pre> That&#x27;s just a few, I&#x27;m a commercial pilot and software engineer, and I find this insanely impressive.

This is a feature of the Garmin G3000:<p>* <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.avweb.com&#x2F;aviation-news&#x2F;garmin-announces-emergency-autoland&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.avweb.com&#x2F;aviation-news&#x2F;garmin-announces-emergen...</a><p>* <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=d-ruFmgTpqA" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=d-ruFmgTpqA</a><p>* <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.ainonline.com&#x2F;aviation-news&#x2F;general-aviation&#x2F;2019-10-30&#x2F;autoland-garmins-newest-safety-feature" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.ainonline.com&#x2F;aviation-news&#x2F;general-aviation&#x2F;201...</a><p>Also Cirrus:<p>* <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;cirrusaircraft.com&#x2F;totalsafety&#x2F;#safereturn" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;cirrusaircraft.com&#x2F;totalsafety&#x2F;#safereturn</a><p>* <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=PiGkzgfR_c0" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=PiGkzgfR_c0</a>

Maybe a coincidence, but Cirrus Aircraft announced their SafeReturn Emergency Autoland on their Vision Jet series today as well [0]. Looks pretty impressive. A passenger can just press one button on the roof behind the pilot, and the aircraft will send a distress signal, re-route and autoland the aircraft at the nearest airport (including terrain and weather avoidance) and also convert all screens on board to inform the passengers how to use the radio for comms etc.<p>[0] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=PiGkzgfR_c0" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=PiGkzgfR_c0</a>

Sounds very similar to something Austin Meyer (creator of x-plane) implemented a few years ago called Xavion: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;xavion.com&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;xavion.com&#x2F;</a><p>This is an ipad app that calculates a best glidepath to the best runway and guides you to the runway safely. It&#x27;s intended for emergency situations when you lose an engine and quickly have to decide on an airport&#x2F;runway. However, it sort of snowballed into an app with a lot of situational awareness features.<p>But he actually experimented with hooking that up to a plane at some point to create a self landing system: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.x-plane.com&#x2F;2014&#x2F;07&#x2F;xavion-brings-a-real-world-airplane-down-to-10-feet-above-the-ground&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.x-plane.com&#x2F;2014&#x2F;07&#x2F;xavion-brings-a-real-world-a...</a>. Not sure if he ever shipped that feature. I imagine there might be some certification hassle :-).

Garmin Autoland is emergency only autoland.<p>Not to be confused with CAT II&#x2F;III autoland used in normal operations.

Cirrus&#x27; Vision Jet also has autolanding called &quot;Safe Return&quot; <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=PiGkzgfR_c0" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=PiGkzgfR_c0</a>

Very cool option. The rocket propelled parashoot ^h^h parachute essentially totals the aircraft when used. Even a crash at post touchdown landing speeds is likely easier on those on board.<p>The autopilot features available to GA and experimental aircraft are quite impressive for holding things at a specific ask in various weather conditions. Not uncommon to have the autopilot active when flying in IFR conditions to help with some of the workload.<p>Assuming the plane has GPS, a correct altimeter setting, and airspeed - between the instruments you get a reasonable amount of cross checking for accuracy and enough information to calculate your vector. If you actually fly&#x2F;land at the speeds recommended, most of the time landing will be pretty uneventful.<p>Many of the tablet&#x2F;phone based GPS only solutions will give a pretty solid estimation of engine out glide distance too. You (should) pitch for &#x27;best glide&#x27; speeds and in combination with the airport data bank with the GPS unit, know where you can get to. I&#x27;ll push the &#x27;direct to&#x27; nearest button and try for it were it in glide range. This sounds like it just connected all the automation dots.<p>A good landing is where everyone leaves the plane safely. A great landing allows the plane to be used again. I suspect this is going for a good landing... which is fantastic news for the passenger.

Interesting to use the word HALO, seeing as its already used as an acronym in aviation for High Altitude Low Opening.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;High-altitude_military_parachuting" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;High-altitude_military_parachu...</a><p>There is also TALO, which stands for Tactical Air Landing Operation<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=WjJdISjq8Wg" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=WjJdISjq8Wg</a>

Cirrus announced their version of this yesterday for their Cirrus Jet, they are calling the feature Safe Return. Also incorporates 7700, TAWS escape, wind check, pax 121.5 simplified radio controls, everything.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;cirrusaircraft.com&#x2F;cirrus-aircraft-revolutionizes-passenger-safety-through-autonomous-flight-with-safe-return-emergency-autoland&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;cirrusaircraft.com&#x2F;cirrus-aircraft-revolutionizes-pa...</a>

Man the headline borderline is incomprehensible. Here&#x27;s the actual article headline: Piper Announces New M600 SLS. First GA Aircraft to be Standard Equipped with HALO™ Safety System and Autoland Capability<p>I&#x27;m assuming GA means generally available?

This is impressive. Use case is for an incapacitated pilot. It won’t work well or at all if the aircraft itself is having issues or in other emergency scenarios. As such it doesn’t replace the need for qualified pilots at the controls.

Title is innaccurate, as the m600 is not the first, it will be simultaneously made available accross several different aircraft with Garmin avionics. The system can be also be retrofitted in older aircraft.

Question: A private jet is obviously bad for the environment, but how does a propeller plane compare carbon-wise to driving a car the same distance?

Pretty neat tech, and an interesting alternate ending from the &quot;pinch hitter&quot; courses being taught by CFIs across the country.

The tech is still interesting, even if similar things that are used even in non-emergency scenarios have existed in large jets for a few decades. The one thing I don&#x27;t understand is if it always just relies on WAAS and GPS no matter what, or, if depending on the runway it chooses to land, it may use something like an ILS.

Not sure what HN is getting all excited about ... the Piper M600 is $3 million, and since Mexico is humid, they&#x27;ve had composite delamination problems ...<p>Or you can just pull the throttle to idle, and trim for Vx, which is the &quot;descend through clouds&quot; emergency procedure.

Does this aircraft have LIDAR or cameras? Wondering how it works with other air traffic and potential collisions. This is one of the biggest challenges for self-driving cars and I can&#x27;t see any details about this in the Garmin G3000

How does it communicate with ground station? Voice recognition and speech synthesis?

&gt;digital technology that safely lands the aircraft at the nearest suitable airport in the event that the pilot is incapacitated.<p>How does it know? Also a weird submission to be at the top of HN

Sounds like something that, once it becomes perfected, could reduce the required number of pilots on commercial passenger aircraft from 2 to 1 (at least for smaller planes).

$2.994M. Guess I&#x27;ll just ride my bike then.

And Cirrus announced the same thing. This isn’t type specific but a characteristic of the new Garmin G3000.

Why do they cost $3M?

Not to be a philistine about new technology: but somehow I think this would make people in the air and in the ground less safe.<p>It&#x27;s probably like having a parachute on the plane: just a great marketing sales point.