Garmin Emergency Autoland Flight Trial

What people said

ceejayoz · 2021-09 · Recommendation

Yes, they can. It'll cost more than the C152 is worth, but Garmin has a "press button to land plane" emergency feature recently approved by the FAA. It'll even announce itself to the relevant air traffic control frequencies. [LINK] > Simultaneously, Autoland analyzes terrain, weather, and nearby airports to determine the optimal airport for landing given the specific aircraft's available fuel and performance characteristics, winds, runway length, and a host of other factors. As the airplane descends, Autoland controls speed, altitude and flight path and manages throttles, flaps, cabin pressurization, and more. > Air traffic controllers are informed of the system's landing destination choice and clear traffic as they would with a human-flown emergency. On final approach, Autoland lowers the gear, flares the airplane, and brings it to a stop with automatic braking. Audible instructions for exiting the airplane then play. The real-life demo is pretty impressive: [VIDEO]

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Animats · 2025-12 · Reference

This is Garman SafeReturn, and this is its first real save. Here's a demo.[1] It's been shipping since about 2020, originally on the Cirrus Vision Jet. There's a lot going on. The system is aware of terrain, weather, and fuel, but not of runway status. So it gives the ground a few minutes to get ready, sending voice emergency messages to ATC. If you watch the flight track, you can see the aircraft circle several times, some distance from the airport, then do a straight-in approach. It sets up for landing, wheels down, flaps down, lands, brakes, and turns of the the engine. It doesn't taxi. Someone from the ground will have to tow or taxi the aircraft off the runway. It's mostly GPS driven, plus a radar altimeter for landing. The system can be triggered by a button in the cockpit, a button in the passenger area, and a system that detects the pilot isn't making any inputs for a long period or the aircraft is unstable and the pilot isn't trying to stabilize it. The pilot can take control back, but if they don't, the airplane will be automatically landed. [1] [VIDEO]

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mlyle · 2022-06 · Reference

> There are no aircraft autopilots which can be used for a fully hands-off landing There's no certificated 3C approaches or equipment, but category 3B autopilots will arm at DH, and then continue all the way down and flare and land. For that matter, there's all the emergency landing autopilots showing up in turboprops now. Push a button and wait to be on the ground. [VIDEO]

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