
Second Thoughts About the Autopilot - robg
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/18/business/18pilots.html?hp
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JunkDNA
One thing that came to mind when reading this is that I think most (all?)
railroad locomotives make use of "dead man" switches that force someone to
perform an activity on a regular basis. I'm not sure if this would be
effective in the case of an airplane, but perhaps something a little "smarter"
than a simple button to push would be the answer. Perhaps something could
force you key in (on a rotating basis) the current airspeed, pitch, etc...
every so often if you're on autopilot and have not touched the controls in a
while. Anyone familiar with current aviation systems know if anything like
this is in place already?

~~~
sokoloff
My close familiarity is with light aircraft, such as my 2-axis autopilot-
equipped Skylane. In nav-coupled mode, my airplane can fly the cruise portion
of the flight essentially unaided, though I obviously don't just take a nap
until we get there.

In a slow aircraft, you have plenty of time to get bored and have your
attention wander off, so I use a 15-minute timer and every radio call directed
at me as a trigger to monitor how well I'm managing the flight. Are there
times that I've had those triggers clue me in that I was "screwing up"?
Absolutely. Have I used that as a trigger to land and sleep, eat, or just walk
around to refresh myself? At times.

That said, I believe that every pilot who has done any amount of travel in
their airplane has had the experience of screwing something up from
diverted/divided attention. Whether it's busting an altitude or airspace
assignment, transmitting on the wrong frequency, or simply missing several
radio calls, it happens.

My point of view is that the autopilot is important improvement in safety,
especially in clouds or an abnormal situation, and I wouldn't want to add a
system that requires additional button-pushing from the pilots that might
compromise safety in a critical situation where the autopilot is providing
meaningful off-load from the pilot. Aircraft and lives have been lost over
trivial distractions in the past.

