Auto Pilot Usage

[Hacker15e]

Again, because you fly in a high-cycle operation, you have no idea the challenges segments of the pilot population face.

This is really the core issue with most of the discussions we have on JC; everyone well understands their own little sliver of the aviation world, but often they assume that what is true in their slice of the world is also true across the board.

Which, unfortunately, it isn't necessarily.

We are all born and raised as aviators with a bias toward what we know and have experience and been taught. It is vital to recognize that it is a bias rather than a universal understanding, and know that there is more out there besides what we've experienced.

The whole point of a forum like this is to exchange those ideas an experiences from each of our own slivers of the aviation world. The smart aviators know that it is in their best interest to try and understand those perspectives, as well as understand how their particular experience fits into that larger context of the aviation world.

 

[MikeD]

This is really the core issue with most of the discussions we have on JC; everyone well understands their own little sliver of the aviation world, but often they assume that what is true in their slice of the world is also true across the board.

Which, unfortunately, it isn't necessarily.

We are all born and raised as aviators with a bias toward what we know and have experience and been taught. It is vital to recognize that it is a bias rather than a universal understanding, and know that there is more out there besides what we've experienced.

The whole point of a forum like this is to exchange those ideas an experiences from each of our own slivers of the aviation world. The smart aviators know that it is in their best interest to try and understand those perspectives, as well as understand how their particular experience fits into that larger context of the aviation world.

Took an airline background guy up with me in the helicopter, on the standard low-level patrol ops. While he hated it in terms of comfort, both in general as well as with the type of mission flying and operations, he freely admitted he realized he had absolutely no idea what helicopter pilots do and how they do it, apart from what's seen on TV etc, and that he was very out of his element and normal comfort zone: landing atop a building, working inside a canyon with limited escape, etc.

 

[Kingairer]

Truth is, given the same circumstances, we probably all use or don't use the autopilot similarly.

 

[Screaming_Emu]

Took an airline background guy up with me in the helicopter, on the standard low-level patrol ops. While he hated it in terms of comfort, both in general as well as with the type of mission flying and operations, he freely admitted he realized he had absolutely no idea what helicopter pilots do and how they do it, apart from what's seen on TV etc, and that he was very out of his element and normal comfort zone: landing atop a building, working inside a canyon with limited escape, etc.

I know exactly what choppers do. They crash!

 

[jtrain609]

Truth is, given the same circumstances, we probably all use or don't use the autopilot similarly.

Yup. I haven't seen much of a divergence between two companies when it comes to having Otto fly is around. The key differences have been how much trust guys put into the automation to do what it says it will.

But it comes on and off at about the same place all the time.

 

[derg]

If it's needed for workload, I'll hand it over to Pierre.

NO no no, s'il vous plait. Eeet eeeez, how you say, Francoise.

 

[derg]

I really can't believe we have 15 pages on the amalgamation of personal choice, company procedure and technique.

On second thought, only 15 pages?

 

[Boris Badenov]

*punt*

 

[MikeD]

I know exactly what choppers do. They crash!

Inside this canyon, slow trolling and looking for people, he asks "..do we need to be down in here?". And the answer was "it's where I work. Welcome to my office. Help yourself to an ice cold water or gatorade from the cooler behind the seat."

Guess it's a little different from cruising at FL350 on autopilot with a Starbucks latte, Chik Fil A, and a Wall Street Journal.

 

[jtrain609]

Inside this canyon, slow trolling and looking for people, he asks "..do we need to be down in here?". And the answer was "it's where I work. Welcome to my office. Help yourself to an ice cold water or gatorade from the cooler behind the seat."

Guess it's a little different from cruising at FL350 on autopilot with a Starbucks latte, Chik Fil A, and a copy of The Economist.

FIFY.

Sounds like fun work, but it's still work. I'm enjoying my retirement job in the flight levels.

 

[Boris Badenov]

The freaking ECONOMIST? He who screws nuns will later join the church.

 

[jtrain609]

The freaking ECONOMIST? He who screws nuns will later join the church.

Know Your Enemy, and other such Rage Against The Machine tunes.

 

[derg]

Know Your Enemy, and other such Rage Against The Machine tunes.

Killing in the name of...

 

[SpiceWeasel]

Born as Ghosts to raid New Millenium Homes.

 

[derg]

Oh no, t eh hand flying! Eek!

 

[Boris Badenov]

Well, in that thing, it's more like "hand-suggesting", isn't it?

 

[derg]

Well, in that thing, it's more like "hand-suggesting", isn't it?

Technically "load requests" in flight mode and the first few hundred feet, it's "direct law". Pretty much the same thing on any modern fly-by-wire jet. Love 'em, hate 'em, better get used to them because there are many more coming.

 

[SlumTodd_Millionaire]

Todd, with those numbers, you're exactly the guy who should be hand-flying as much as possible.

Hardly. That would just lead to a lack of proficiency with the automation (which, frankly, is far more important). I hand fly on occasion, like I said everyone should. But only on occasion.

 

[SlumTodd_Millionaire]

I'll call it "the UAV/RPA effect". As millions of military hours operating UAVs/RPAs have shown, it is possible to have this human decisionmaking in the loop of aircraft operations but without actually having them in the cockpit of the aircraft. Every single one of the circumstances you mention, and the others, can all be done with a guy sitting in a box thousands of miles away

Sounds like a dream job to me.

But remote piloting -- which still very much allows that decisionmaking you reference -- again cannot handle either avionics failures (especially those that impact the sensors needed to "see/hear", and parts of the control link) or catastrophic emergencies/failures.

Sure he can, with enough systems redundancy to ensure that he maintains control over the aircraft. Believe me, this is where aviation is heading. Within our lifetimes, you will begin to see at least cargo aircraft with no pilot on board the actual aircraft. Count on it.

 

[Boris Badenov]

Love 'em, hate 'em, better get used to them because there are many more coming.

Oh, that's one that doesn't even really bother me that much. It doesn't seem to me that simple computers are any less reliable than, say, hydraulic systems. Noone bats an eyelash at hydraulics.

That said, when I see a fuse laying around unattended, I light it. Because that's how I roll!