Garmin Emergency Autoland Flight Trial
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN points to it as a concrete demo of emergency autoland when threads discuss pilot incapacitation and aviation automation.
What it is
AVweb's flight trial of Garmin's Emergency Autoland system, which flies a plane to a runway and lands it when the pilot cannot. It is part of Garmin's Autonomi automation on the G3000 avionics.
Recommended by 1 HN commenters across 1 different months, 2021 to 2025.
What Hacker News said
Recommends ceejayoz · 2021-09 · on “Startup aims to make piloting a jetpack as easy as flying a drone”
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
Cites kayodelycaon · 2021-12 · on “Artificial Intelligence in the Cockpit”
If you haven't seen it, Garmin has an emergency automatic landing system that's installed in a few planes already: [LINK] Limitations: [LINK] Video: [this video]
Cites Animats · 2021-12 · on “Artificial Intelligence in the Cockpit”
There's already a system that does the whole job of flying, for emergency use only - Garmin Safe Return.[1] In the plane, there's one big red button. If pushed, the plane finds an airport and lands, all by itself. It picks the nearest suitable destination airport, using info about fuel state, weather, and airport status. It starts squawking with the emergency transponder code. It plays emergency messages to ATC. There's also pilot incapacitation detection. If the pilot doesn't do anything for a long time, the system sounds warnings, then takes over. Everybody else has to get out of the way, though, when it declares an emergency. It can't really communicate with ATC. So it's strictly an emerg
Cites haunter · 2022-05 · on “Passenger with “no idea how to fly” lands plane after pilot incapacitated”
Autoland has been a (mostly emergency) feature for years [LINK] It might have been installed on the plane [this video] [LINK]
Cites mlyle · 2022-06 · on “US moves closer to recalling Tesla’s self-driving software”
> 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. [this video]
Cites Animats · 2025-12 · on “Autoland saves King Air, everyone reported safe”
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, p