Autoland King Air 200 Due to Pilot Incapacitation Broomfield, CO 12/20/25

What kind of sorcery is this? This is game-changing. Does it sense the incapacitation and automatically invoke action? If so, how does it sense incap? Does it query the pilot after sensing a period of inactivity or something?
 
Could be like a deadman's switch on locomotives. Have to press it every so often or train comes to a stop.
 
Say what? That has to be a joke that got taken seriously. If not, then the manual and training is incomplete.
 
MFE said:
What kind of sorcery is this? This is game-changing. Does it sense the incapacitation and automatically invoke action? If so, how does it sense incap? Does it query the pilot after sensing a period of inactivity or something?
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From what I have read plus a couple videos I have seen, a button has to be manually pushed to activate the system.
 
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There is no button, it has a spring loaded plastic cover, you lift the cover, then with the other hand, operate a toggle switch. It is intended to be used by non pilot passengers.

The plane I was in was a taildragger, I wonder how it would have done with a cross wind?

CORECTION not a taildragger, he just landed in nose high attitude, felt like a tailwheel landing. Pulled up a picture of the plane after posters questioned the design.

With a real emergency, a ground loop on an airport with tower, the norm for GPS selection, you are way ahead of the alternatives.
 
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geezer said:
The plane I was in was a taildragger, I wonder how it would have done with a cross wind?
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There"a almost always a crosswind, so the system doesn't need to know the difference between a crosswind and not. In a strong crosswind, the system would do what I tell my students to do on all their landings: what's necessary.
 
Broomfield, NOT Bloomfield. KBJC
 
Lindberg said:
There"a almost always a crosswind, so the system doesn't need to know the difference between a crosswind and not. In a strong crosswind, the system would do what I tell my students to do on all their landings: what's necessary.
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Yep. This is the easy part. Look at what happened in RC aviation with the invention of the little control units that keep everything stable and let the human with the transmitter just give inputs to direct the model where they want it to go. Basically overnight the hobby went from requiring skill and training just to be able to fly, to super adventurous and unstable designs that the computer could keep stable while the human had some fun. This is true of some military aircraft today also, but it is an almost complete transition in RC flying.

Crosswind landings, speed control, finding the airport and runway... All that is the easy stuff to automate and could be done tomorrow for all aircraft if we wanted.

The more interesting part is the non-standard stuff. That's the reason to have humans on the flight deck.

Today we, as this event demonstrates, have the technology to have a computer backup for when the human fails. Good stuff.

Over time, this will trend toward having a human backup for when the tech fails. This is already happening in the form of autoland systems that regularly bring planes into airports that would be too hazardous to leave to humans alone.

Then it's likely to be single pilot.

And finally no pilot, with a remote link to a pilot pool monitoring and being on standby for several flights at once.
 
MFE said:
What kind of sorcery is this? This is game-changing. Does it sense the incapacitation and automatically invoke action? If so, how does it sense incap? Does it query the pilot after sensing a period of inactivity or something?
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Yes, in my M600 SLS if you don’t interact with the system for a set amount of time it’ll flash a warning. If you do not respond within 1 minute it will descend to 14,000.

It will query you again after 5 minutes at 14,000. If you do not respond within 1 minute it will descend to 10,000.

It will again query you. If you do not respond it activates the HALO System, aka Auto Land.

It will equal 7700, look at your route, look at MEAs, look at airports with big runways and medical services.

It will then make calls to ATC and land the plane.
 
If you do not respond it activates the HALO System, aka Auto Land.
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But can’t you deactivate the auto land? Other than pulling an autopilot CB.
 
Deactivate with the AP disconnect button. Other ways to do it, but that is the easiest way. As to crosswinds, the autoland looks at winds, weather, runway properties and picks the best airport with a precision GPS preferably a tower, less preferably a class-B, and a host of other inputs. Pretty well engineered.
 
geezer said:
There is no button, it has a spring loaded plastic cover, you lift the cover, then with the other hand, operate a toggle switch. It is intended to be used by non pilot passengers.

The plane I was in was a taildragger, I wonder how it would have done with a cross wind?

With a real emergency, a ground loop on an airport with tower, the norm for GPS selection, you are way ahead of the alternatives.
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Were you in a taildragger with autoland?
 
RV 10, total glass, full autopilot, the most amazing creation that I have flown in.

That was Dec. 2022, and my last PIC flight. Fast, responsive, and a joy to fly.

The runway we landed on had some crosswind, so he landed since my last tail wheel time was in 1980 +or-.
 
Rick A said:
Does it even remember to lower the landing gear at an appropriate airspeed and time?
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Yes, same with flaps and has full throttle control. Runs icing equipment if needed and even checks MEAs in the area for best route of flight. Then shuts down the engine after landing.
 
geezer said:
RV 10, total glass, full autopilot, the most amazing creation that I have flown in.

That was Dec. 2022, and my last PIC flight. Fast, responsive, and a joy to fly.

The runway we landed on had some crosswind, so he landed since my last tail wheel time was in 1980 +or-.
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I am unaware of any RV10 tail draggers...
 
Zeldman said:
From what I have read plus a couple videos I have seen, a button has to be manually pushed to activate the system.
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Perhaps on this one; the factory integrated systems also detect whether the pilot is responsive.
 
Listening to the audio from Live ATC and watching the VAS video, what struck me the most was how much we can learn from how Autoland handled ATC.

We have an emergency. Here is what we’re doing.

This was a situation in which ATC couldn’t help other than keeping everyone else out of their way.
 
geezer said:
There is no button, it has a spring loaded plastic cover, you lift the cover, then with the other hand, operate a toggle switch. It is intended to be used by non pilot passengers.

The plane I was in was a taildragger, I wonder how it would have done with a cross wind?

With a real emergency, a ground loop on an airport with tower, the norm for GPS selection, you are way ahead of the alternatives.
Click to expand...
That was smart glide, not auto land. Autoland is only available as a factory install in a few turboprops and the cirrus SR. It was just certified a year or two ago. Smart glide is available with any gfc500 and gtn5nxi equipped airplane. It will select an airport and fly forward it at best glide speed. It does not do radio calls or maneuver/ land the plane as autoland does.

geezer said:
RV 10, total glass, full autopilot, the most amazing creation that I have flown in.

That was Dec. 2022, and my last PIC flight. Fast, responsive, and a joy to fly.

The runway we landed on had some crosswind, so he landed since my last tail wheel time was in 1980 +or-.
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If it was a t/d, it was probably a 14 (2 seats sxs, tip up canopy?). The 10 is trigear only, 4 seater with 2 gullwing doors.

FORANE said:
Being reported on another site there were 2 pilots onboard, it was inadvertent activation, and they didn't know how to deactivate it.
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All the reporting I've seen had been conspicuously quiet about the status of the pilot. The operators website https://www.buffaloriveraviation.com/ states on the home page that "every charter flight uses a two member crew". Possible this was a positioning flight i suppose. Not sure if 135 certificates make an exception for that. A couple posters on VAF claim to have first hand knowledge that the above story is the case. Will we ever know? Will the 709 ride involve more than "don't push that button"? Stay tuned to "as the prop turns"...
 
Jim K said:
That was smart glide, not auto land. Autoland is only available as a factory install in a few turboprops and the cirrus SR. It was just certified a year or two ago. Smart glide is available with any gfc500 and gtn5nxi equipped airplane. It will select an airport and fly forward it at best glide speed. It does not do radio calls or maneuver/ land the plane as autoland does.


If it was a t/d, it was probably a 14 (2 seats sxs, tip up canopy?). The 10 is trigear only, 4 seater with 2 gullwing doors.


All the reporting I've seen had been conspicuously quiet about the status of the pilot. The operators website https://www.buffaloriveraviation.com/ states on the home page that "every charter flight uses a two member crew". Possible this was a positioning flight i suppose. Not sure if 135 certificates make an exception for that. A couple posters on VAF claim to have first hand knowledge that the above story is the case. Will we ever know? Will the 709 ride involve more than "don't push that button"? Stay tuned to "as the prop turns"...
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If it's true that there was no emergency, then the real issue is neither pilot (if two) knowing how to disable the system.
 
Kenny Phillips said:
If it's true that there was no emergency, then the real issue is neither pilot (if two) knowing how to disable the system.
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Thats provided the disable system did not fail when the pilots activated it??
 
What a complicated system.
Does it use a published approach to find a runway?

An aside; I wonder what the ICA says??
Should almost include a full operational test each year.
 
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