AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2020 - 63

In our case, the decision making was
easy, as New Century was only a few
miles away with multiple runways and
approaches. After Autoland made its
decision, the autothrottle system actually accelerated the airplane to about 200
knots, getting us to the airport as quickly
as possible. At this writing, Piper was
expecting that the autothrottle system
on the M600 would be for this emergency use only. However, Piper plans to
get it certified for all phases of flight. The
Cirrus Vision Jet already has a certified
autothrottle system.
Once nearing a fix for the RNAV
Runway 18 approach, the airplane began a
descent to the initial altitude of 3,100 feet
msl, accelerating to 230 knots. Because
we were high and fast, it entered a oneturn hold to continue the descent and to
slow down, ultimately rolling us out on a
perfect final approach course. Upon intercepting the glidepath, it automatically
lowered the landing gear and flaps to the
Approach setting, the only flap setting it
will use on the M600. Winds were 090 at
10, so it crabbed into the wind on the final
approach path and adjusted the thrust
setting to slow us to 102 knots indicated.
Had the temperatures been nearing
freezing, it also would have activated the
airplane's anti-icing or deicing systems at
the start.
A few hundred feet above the runway, it kicked the nose straight and
lowered the left wing to maintain the
course-"decrabbing," as Sargent calls it.
Just over the runway, the radar altimeter began feeding height information to
the flight control system, allowing it to
pitch up slightly-a flare. The autothrottle rolled the thrust back to idle and a few
seconds later we touched down as the system actuated the servos on the brakes to
bring us to a stop. Reverse thrust is not
available to the Autoland system.
LOOK MA, NO HANDS!

While the notion of an autoland system
seems futuristic, Garmin has been quietly
working on it since 2011 and conducted its
first autoland in a Columbia piston-powered airplane in 2014 and first briefed the
FAA on it in 2015. Since then it has conducted some 800 autolands.
The system is not like the autoland systems on airliners and a few

models of business jets in that those systems require a ground-based signal-a
Category III ILS-specially trained and
certified crews, and dual or triple redundant autopilot systems, among other
equipment. Such precise ILSes are available at only a small number of runways.
During initial testing, Garmin created "runways in the sky" and built
approaches to those runways, having the
system then fly to the runway-at a safe
altitude.
Bailey Scheel, senior aviation systems
programs engineer and project manager
for Autoland, said the company has had
some 100 people working on the project
over the past five years. She said disciplines from throughout Garmin were
leveraged to make it happen. Even the
team at Garmin Drive, its automotive GPS
division, were consulted on how to best
choose routes back to an airport.
Over the years, the company has put
dozens of nonpilot staffers into airplanes

FOR THE M600, Piper is branding a pack-

age of safety equipment under the HALO
name (opposite, top). In Autoland mode,
the Garmin touchscreen control panels
turn into push-to-talk buttons if the
passenger wants to communicate with
air traffic control (opposite, bottom).

After I hit the Autoland button, the system
went through a series of complex calculations
and decision-making processes to determine
the nearest suitable runway.
on company trips and during test flights,
asking them what they would want to see
and not see if the pilot were incapacitated
and Autoland was activated. Using the
feedback, Garmin dramatically refined
the passenger information. In the beginning the engineers wanted to ignore that
completely and focus only on getting the
aircraft safely on the ground. But after
numerous human factors studies and
with staff input, the group decided that
passenger information was important
and necessary.
The system seems super sophisticated
and almost over the top in what it does to
keep passengers informed. Throughout the
flight with Autoland engaged, the MFD
constantly updates the position, time to
landing, and fuel status and then, for each
phase of flight, shows a video to get the
passenger ready-showing when and how
to fasten seat belts and stow loose objects,
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AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2020

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