For the money they're getting I think it should include a massaging pilot seat. In fact, I'd actually prefer the seat to the autoland.

"The airplane has determined that you are too stressed out to fly, so it is landing the plane automatically at the nearest suitable airport. Please do not touch the controls. To reduce your stress, the seat massage has been turned on, and the audio system will now play a selection of relaxing music. Please enjoy the remainder of your flight."

Mike C.

They have that, it is called the SF50. When their 4-seater costs, what, $1.3M, they are not going to put a 6-seat piston between that and the jet at $2.7 or whatever it is.

Figure $4M now.

Feels like there is room for something in the gap.

The main reason they won't make a SETP is that it would embarrass the SF50 in performance. They already have a turboprop performing airplane, it just lacks the prop.

Mike C.

Those pilots should not be PIC.

All that Cirrus is doing with these systems that _should not be necessary given a competent pilot (and if we ignore the tiny number of cases of pilot incapacitation where it would have made a difference)_ is creating more incompetent pilots. Even the training is, indirectly, creating a class of pilots who should not be PIC.

Having all that with a piece of safety equipment you think will save you from yourself could be a death sentence.

That basically happened with the chute early on until they, duh, did more training.

Chute didn't make people safe, training does.


Giving weak pilots more risk credit to spend is not a good way to solve this.

Most accidents start before the engine does.

Mike C.

The next generation of CJ’s will have the safe to land automation features. The first one is the Gen 3 CJ4. The premium over the Gen 2 CJ4 is noticeable, but there is a market and they are getting orders, and it’s not fleets. Fleets don’t need it, they have two pilots. The typical buyer is a single pilot owner pilot. Why? Because the technology gives them a second pilot for when the sh!t hits the fan. Most notably for when there is pilot incapacity. The system will send the pilot a cas message if there has been a period of non-touch of controls, such as a frequency change. If the cas goes unacknowledged the system logic assumes incapacity and engages itself and begins the auto safe to land feature. This theoretically avoids the Pane Stewart kind of outcome where the plane comes out of the sky uncontrolled. Maybe the pilot has lost consciousness or worse, but the plane has a very good chance to save any passengers in the back, or at least not inadvertently kill someone on the ground. I’m 60. I own and fly a CJ4. I see this tech as a good safety enhancement for single pilot ops, especially as I continue to run laps around the sun. I would still have to go to recurrent training and meet the standards to fly single pilot, so it’s not a crutch and shouldn’t be looked at that way. I know my loved ones will feel better knowing that there is a very good chance that in the event my number is up, that every other person onboard doesn’t have to go early, and the plane doesn’t kill anyone else on the ground.

I pointed out one, if the system pulls back the mixture at the wrong time. That could be bad. There are plenty of others. You are depending on literally billions of things working right when the software and electronics are considered.


That's generally not true, at least not a fatal crash.

We have many stories of passengers landing planes successfully.

Here's a list of some of them:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk-down ... ft_landing

Proclamations of certain death in pilot incapacitation scenarios are wrong.

I'm not aware of a case where a passenger failed in this situation. I'm sure it has happened, but it seems more rare than the success.

Mike C.

Auto land has been flying for some time now. Have not heard of maintenance issues, or rogue activations. Pretty smart system. It self tests every start up, and will CAS any faulty components. If a fault occurs in the air, it will notify the pilot what part of the system is degraded, but has the ability to use whatever part of the AL system is available in degraded fashion. The system has been used and tested hundreds of times in multiple airframes and I have not heard of a single failure to stop the plane on center line. However bad it could be, it is still better than a pilot that has lost command or lost control. Should not be a death sentence to have a bad day. The mantra of train train train falls short hundreds of times every year. The only way to get the GA fatality rate much below 1/100K will be training, with the gap covered by technology. We are all top 10% pilots… Until we aren’t.

In my 50’s carrying a plane full of family around, didn’t worry about it much. AS the years tick by, and kids are replaced by grand-kids, I am feeling less bulletproof. Best pilot that I have ever been. Top of my game, but hardly a week goes by that I don’t take care of a cardiac arrest patient in the ICU younger than me.

The best use for this system is in IMC when the IR or VFR pilot gets over his head due to fatigue, unplanned low ceilings and maybe not enough fuel to make an alternate. Hit the button and let the plane get you out of the situation. Single pilot IFR is risky and difficult even for so called "competent" high time pilots. I have been over my head in IMC on approach and anyone who has flown regularly in these conditions has as well, even if you do not admit it. If the pilot does not let pride get him killed, hitting that button is better than pulling the chute and totaling an otherwise perfectly working airplane. It's the difference between an accident and an incident.