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R.Perry

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The Piper 600 halo now has the Garmin auto land system, at least you still need to take off. Lets face it the G1000 is an awesome avionics system, this just brings it up a notch. As far as I know it isn't available for the M500 or M300. Garmin says they may eventually have a retrofit for older aircraft, but I can just imagine what that would cost.
I know the M500 is 2 million plus, way out of my pocket book that is for sure.

It takes some time to get acquainted with the G1000 avionics but once you do it is awesome.

The thing I wonder about, is how their autopilot is going to handle turbulence, crosswind landings, most autopilots I've had experience with don't do well in rough weather.

There is a video that demonstrates the autoland system, it will even communicate with ATC.
 
I saw that promo video a couple of weeks ago and thought "Oh boy.. here we go... next step it'll be like UAS... Buy, Charge, Fly... no training required."
 
I saw that promo video a couple of weeks ago and thought "Oh boy.. here we go... next step it'll be like UAS... Buy, Charge, Fly... no training required."

Remember the movie 2000 space, "good afternoon ladies and gentlemen, I'm Hal your captain for this flight." We are getting very close to real AI
 
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The crop dusting industry could use AI in a crop duster, I mean no pilot. One of the major killers in aviation is crop dusting, both chemical poisoning and of course accidents. At least now with GPS we don't need some poor fool waiving a flag to line us up to the next row. I believe the technology is very close, I just don't know if the FAA would go for it.
 
As posted in one of the other threads Liquid is being done now - dust can't be that far down the road
 
As posted in one of the other threads Liquid is being done now - dust can't be that far down the road
Very true.

John Deere has a UAS Liquid division that I got to watch in action earlier this year. Very impressive and efficient work but only for a small to medium farm (right now) due to FAA regulations.
 
The Piper 600 halo now has the Garmin auto land system, at least you still need to take off. Lets face it the G1000 is an awesome avionics system, this just brings it up a notch. As far as I know it isn't available for the M500 or M300. Garmin says they may eventually have a retrofit for older aircraft, but I can just imagine what that would cost.
I know the M500 is 2 million plus, way out of my pocket book that is for sure.

It takes some time to get acquainted with the G1000 avionics but once you do it is awesome.

The thing I wonder about, is how their autopilot is going to handle turbulence, crosswind landings, most autopilots I've had experience with don't do well in rough weather.

There is a video that demonstrates the autoland system, it will even communicate with ATC.

I don't know anything about the garmin system, but I have developed a fixed wing uav flight controller with autoland (and auto takeoff) capabilities. Rough weather is always a challenge. Generally I tune the flight controllers very 'soft' or low gain. My planes fly with a gentle touch and sort of mimic a pilot that lets the airplane get bounced around and fly through turbulence. It is a subjective balance ... there is a knob to turn between more aggressive and less aggressive, there isn't a single right answer. You don't want to go too soft though and not be able to respond if turbulence knocks you very far off kilter, but dial up too aggressive and the peanuts from the passengers in seat A end up in the lap of passengers in seat E for every turn (even if the plane could handle it fine.)

For handling wind, I have an algorithm running on board that estimates the wind direction and speed. For UAV type missions wind estimation works really well and is pretty accurate. It also self calibrates the pitot airspeed (to 'true' airspeed) as a side effect. (Indicated airspeed is still available as a value if you want to use it for v-speed decisions.) The heading controller factors in desired ground track, current airspeed, and current wind and steers the plane appropriately. So it handles moderate cross winds just fine and tracks right in to the touch down point. The challenge though is that often the wind vector changes a lot as you descend through your approach path. Significant gusts and wind shear can still throw you off. (Especially with UAV's you might be flying a 20-25 kt approach in 15-25 kt winds ... so the relative affect of the wind is often much more than in full size airplanes.)

I find it is really fascinating stuff to experiment with and rewarding when the system works. I've had my plane up in winds higher than cruise speed and have been momentarily going backwards. That's when you quick grab the ground station and bump up the target speed a few kts before you end up too far down wind.

From the very little I've heard about the garmin system is that it has huge margins built in ... so it presumes a fast approach speed, presumes worst case winds from the worst case direction and plans turns and approaches around that. A system that directly knew the current conditions and the precise performance capabilities of the aircraft would be able to land much more directly. But it ends up being a tradeoff between getting the plane on the ground safely every time, vs. optimizing time/distance/fuel and risking a missed approach and a go around.

Curt.
 
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Sounds pretty neat but can it determine the closest, most suitable airport based on broadcast weather conditions and runway length during an emergency, self broadcast aircraft position and intent to auto land on the emergency frequency, provide pop up text information on an graphical screen to alert non pilot passengers on flight status and how to prepare for landing, and land on a runway center line without need for Category IIIa instrument equipment? It will even inform passengers how to deploy a ballistic parachute if the aircraft is so equipped. The Garmin can and does. It’s truly an incredible device for general aviation aircraft that have never before been capable of such features.
 
Sounds pretty neat but can it determine the closest, most suitable airport based on broadcast weather conditions and runway length during an emergency, self broadcast aircraft position and intent to auto land on the emergency frequency, provide pop up text information on an graphical screen to alert non pilot passengers on flight status and how to prepare for landing, and land on a runway center line without need for Category IIIa instrument equipment? It will even inform passengers how to deploy a ballistic parachute if the aircraft is so equipped. The Garmin can and does. It’s truly an incredible device for general aviation aircraft that have never before been capable of such features.

Yeah, but can the garmin do RID so all the little drones can scurry out of the way in time? :)
 
Sounds pretty neat but can it determine the closest, most suitable airport based on broadcast weather conditions and runway length during an emergency, self broadcast aircraft position and intent to auto land on the emergency frequency, provide pop up text information on an graphical screen to alert non pilot passengers on flight status and how to prepare for landing, and land on a runway center line without need for Category IIIa instrument equipment? It will even inform passengers how to deploy a ballistic parachute if the aircraft is so equipped. The Garmin can and does. It’s truly an incredible device for general aviation aircraft that have never before been capable of such features.

Apparently it does, it is most likely configured for a particular aircraft, you wouldn't want it on a 777 and send it to a airport with 4000 feet of runway. I just watched the auto land demo so I don't have all the specifics. My cousin works for Garmin Aviation division in Virginia, I'll see if I can get some information out of him. I do know it isn't available for all aircraft currently.
 
The Piper 600 halo now has the Garmin auto land system, at least you still need to take off. Lets face it the G1000 is an awesome avionics system, this just brings it up a notch. As far as I know it isn't available for the M500 or M300. Garmin says they may eventually have a retrofit for older aircraft, but I can just imagine what that would cost.
I know the M500 is 2 million plus, way out of my pocket book that is for sure.

It takes some time to get acquainted with the G1000 avionics but once you do it is awesome.

The thing I wonder about, is how their autopilot is going to handle turbulence, crosswind landings, most autopilots I've had experience with don't do well in rough weather.

There is a video that demonstrates the autoland system, it will even communicate with ATC.
Like pilot training is not bad enough. We don't train airline pilots, we train computer operators and the accident rates with these computerized beasts show. We are crashing perfectly flyable airplanes. Stick & rudder is a lost art.
 
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Like pilot training is not bad enough. We don't train airline pilots, we train computer operators and the accident rates with these computerized beasts show. We are crashing perfectly flyable airplanes. Stick & rudder is a lost art.

It is even in general aviation, and you are right many pilots are loosing their flight due to automation. Look at our drones, half the time I'm not flying it, auto is flying and I'm watching. When I do mapping it is totally autonomous from takeoff to landing.
I would hate to be an airline pilot today, other than takeoff and landing they don't fly the aircraft. Also many now depend on the autopilot for IFR approaches.
 

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