Judging by the cell phone videos of planes coming down under chute, I kind of expect the opposite. 911 calls have been made before the chute plane reaches the ground.

A plane on autoland is not clearly in distress, it is not an "accident". A plane under chute is clearly in distress and that is clearly an accident. Thus I expect more rapid response for the chute activation.

Depending on the runway the autoland chooses, it could take 10-15 minutes to land. The chute is "now".

Mike C.

The autoland system dominant usage will be to demo it. It will be a long time before we get a use for "real". You can bet the Cirrus PR machine will go hyper when that happens.

New Cirrus pilot insult: "The autoland system flies better than you do".

Mike C.

I would think it just goes full rich to fly, then cut-off to shutdown.

Regarding LOP though, it is nice in the G6: The fuel flow tape has green areas which change dynamically based on power setting, altitude, etc., basically telling you "lean to this area". The tape will show one green range ROP, and a second green range LOP. There is a gap in between them, I expect around peak. The G5s I've flown just have a single range, "don't go richer than this". In climb, you lean to the top of the green area (which goes lower as altitude goes up).

Judging by the cell phone videos of planes coming down under chute, I kind of expect the opposite. 911 calls have been made before the chute plane reaches the ground.

A plane on autoland is not clearly in distress, it is not an "accident". A plane under chute is clearly in distress and that is clearly an accident. Thus I expect more rapid response for the chute activation.

Depending on the runway the autoland chooses, it could take 10-15 minutes to land. The chute is "now".

Mike C.

They are already making those concessions to trust the machine over the pilot. You want flaps, but airspeed is too high? It won't lower the flaps. Pitot heat? No more switch for that, it actuates automatically and self-tests on its own. Switches tanks on its own (but you should be able to override). No manual trim wheels or knobs. We've already seen 1 of 2 SF50 chute pulls was due to an automation sensor. But given the accident causes (80% pilot failure), it's not necessarily the wrong direction for Cirrus to go with their brand. IMO, they aren't trying to build pilot's planes, but traveler's planes.

Just for you, Mike.

They are already making those concessions to trust the machine over the pilot. You want flaps, but airspeed is too high? It won't lower the flaps. Pitot heat? No more switch for that, it actuates automatically and self-tests on its own. Switches tanks on its own (but you should be able to override). No manual trim wheels or knobs. We've already seen 1 of 2 SF50 chute pulls was due to an automation sensor. But given the accident causes (80% pilot failure), it's not necessarily the wrong direction for Cirrus to go with their brand. IMO, they aren't trying to build pilot's planes, but traveler's planes.

Then the runway is far away, too.

We're talking about a situation where the terrain is not accessible under you, there is an airport 50 miles away, the pilot is incapacitated with a medical event, that medical event won't kill them for the next 30 minutes, there is a passenger, that passenger activates the autoland instead of the chute, the passenger doesn't accidentally hit the AP disconnect button when trying to talk on the radio (which stops autoland), the plane lands successfully, emergency people arrive soon enough at the airport to save the pilot's life.

We are definitely into the 1 in a billion scenario by the time we pile up all the things that have to happen to make the autoland better than the chute for pilot survival.


It is good for Cirrus PR. It is on brand for their "gadgets equals safety" mentality, whether or not it actually does in real life.

Mike C.

All the cool kids are doing autoland, they can't be left out.

Maybe the next iteration will be "Remote Assist", where you press a button and a human pilot in a booth somewhere takes over and lands on the short runway with a crosswind.

Judging by the cell phone videos of planes coming down under chute, I kind of expect the opposite. 911 calls have been made before the chute plane reaches the ground.

A plane on autoland is not clearly in distress, it is not an "accident". A plane under chute is clearly in distress and that is clearly an accident. Thus I expect more rapid response for the chute activation.

Depending on the runway the autoland chooses, it could take 10-15 minutes to land. The chute is "now".

Mike C.

Does the plane have a radar altimeter? Or is this another instance - like Garmin with its ESP - of relying on inadequate sensors or a lack of redundancy?

Yes, this is for use in an emergency, but in the extremely small chance I as a passenger have to use it, I don't want to be dropped 20' onto the runway and die from the resulting fire.

I believe the algorithm selects a runway with GPS vertical guidance, no radar altimeter. It's mentioned in the video. And yes, a CME event (among other things) may negate that.....a degraded autoland system may display a message to consider CAPS instead.

True, but unless you get extremely unlucky and end up in the middle of an interstate full of blind drivers that's not really much of an issue IMO.

I heard someone playing around with it in a Hondajet today. This flight - https://www.flightaware.com/live/flight ... /KGSO/KTRI

An automated voice transmitted over 121.5 - "N420EX pilot incapacitation, emergency landing activated" and then it gave the current position, where it was landing, and ETA.

That sure stirred up 121.5 for a while! Finally someone came on freq and said it was just a demo.

Funny thing is it kept repeating and updating ETA every few minutes. Every time there'd be 5 more people asking center if they heard that transmission, and every time (what I'm assuming was one of) the HJ pilots would have to calm everyone down.

This could be a real mess

It seems like Garmin could integrate this technology into older aircraft.

A simple on-screen instruction for the throttle, gear, and flaps, coupled with a red flashing light at each specific control that subsequently turns green when set properly, would turn a passenger into a survivor when coupled with a Garmin autopilot.