I found this :

Auto-Pilot cannot do a take off. Once the gear and flaps are up, and out of the terminal area, pilots like to engage the AP. It is coupled to the INS (Inertial Navigation System) or GPS. During Cruise the aircraft is almost always on AP, It does require constant monitoring to make sure you are on course. Descent into the terminal area is a pilot option, Most pilots like to fly the approach manually in good visibility. In limited visibility they will let AP fly down to decision height and then disengage.

If flying a CAT III ILS approach, which is very rarely done, landing in zero/zero weather, the AP will stay engaged and plane will autoland. Pilot will have hands on the stick following the plane on glide-slope. It will land hard because of no flare just before touchdown. So the aircraft is on AP close to 75% of the time in flight.

Source
Retired Instructor Flight Engineer

Fly by wire

Airbus and Boeing commercial airplanes differ in their approaches in using fly-by-wire systems. In Airbus airliners, the flight-envelope control system always retains ultimate flight control when flying under normal law, and it will not permit the pilots to fly outside these performance limits unless flying under alternate law. However, in the event of multiple failures of redundant computers, the A320 does have a mechanical back-up system for its pitch trim and its rudder. The A340-600 has a purely electrical (not electronic) back-up rudder control system, and beginning with the new A380 airliner, all flight-control systems have back-up systems that are purely electrical through the use of a so-called "three-axis Backup Control Module" (BCM).

With the Boeing 777 model airliners, the two pilots can completely override the computerized flight-control system to permit the aircraft to be flown beyond its usual flight-control envelope during emergencies. Airbus's strategy, which began with the Airbus A320, has been continued on subsequent Airbus airliners.

Years of reliable service around the world have underscored fly-by-wire’s significant benefits through commonality, improved flight safety, reduced pilot workload, a reduction of mechanical parts, and real-time monitoring of all aircraft systems.

If fly by wire wasn't safe it wouldn't have been used worldwide since the 1980's. Having a fear of flying is not the same as mistrusting the technology.

Most fighter planes are fly by wire. Ive heard tell that the F-117 and the B-1 bomber could not fly if the pilot had to do it.

From what I've read, the 117 is too unstable to be flown without computers, instructions were if the computers goes out, eject... Oh and the F-117 is a bomber, a fighter it wasn't, that would have to wait for the F-22 Raptor. The B-1 was the swing wing bomber and I think all the B-1's might still be in service too, maybe.

The B-2 can't fly without computers either.

However, I bet the military planes are designed to do what the pilot tells them and not do his/her thinking for him/her.

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David
Sitting on my butt while others boldly go,
Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri.

But the X47-B has landed and taken off from a carrier. Look ma, no pilot.
Tullio

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Exactly Tullio.

Autopilots are designed for different tasks. Saying "all autopilots do this" or "all autopilots can't do that" is like saying "all cars can only go 55 mph because my car does".

A few, very expensive and delicate autopilots have been performing full takeoffs and landings for decades. The average airliner doesn't need this, so it doesn't have this. Even the autoland autopilots are still fairly rare, because of higher initial purchase price and higher in service costs (equipment upkeep, crew training, ground portion of system.)

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I found this :

Auto-Pilot cannot do a take off. Once the gear and flaps are up, and out of the terminal area, pilots like to engage the AP. It is coupled to the INS (Inertial Navigation System) or GPS. During Cruise the aircraft is almost always on AP, It does require constant monitoring to make sure you are on course. Descent into the terminal area is a pilot option, Most pilots like to fly the approach manually in good visibility. In limited visibility they will let AP fly down to decision height and then disengage.

If flying a CAT III ILS approach, which is very rarely done, landing in zero/zero weather, the AP will stay engaged and plane will autoland. Pilot will have hands on the stick following the plane on glide-slope. It will land hard because of no flare just before touchdown. So the aircraft is on AP close to 75% of the time in flight.

Source
Retired Instructor Flight Engineer

Fly by wire

Airbus and Boeing commercial airplanes differ in their approaches in using fly-by-wire systems. In Airbus airliners, the flight-envelope control system always retains ultimate flight control when flying under normal law, and it will not permit the pilots to fly outside these performance limits unless flying under alternate law. However, in the event of multiple failures of redundant computers, the A320 does have a mechanical back-up system for its pitch trim and its rudder. The A340-600 has a purely electrical (not electronic) back-up rudder control system, and beginning with the new A380 airliner, all flight-control systems have back-up systems that are purely electrical through the use of a so-called "three-axis Backup Control Module" (BCM).

With the Boeing 777 model airliners, the two pilots can completely override the computerized flight-control system to permit the aircraft to be flown beyond its usual flight-control envelope during emergencies. Airbus's strategy, which began with the Airbus A320, has been continued on subsequent Airbus airliners.

Years of reliable service around the world have underscored fly-by-wire’s significant benefits through commonality, improved flight safety, reduced pilot workload, a reduction of mechanical parts, and real-time monitoring of all aircraft systems.

If fly by wire wasn't safe it wouldn't have been used worldwide since the 1980's. Having a fear of flying is not the same as mistrusting the technology.

Most fighter planes are fly by wire. Ive heard tell that the F-117 and the B-1 bomber could not fly if the pilot had to do it.

From what I've read, the 117 is too unstable to be flown without computers, instructions were if the computers goes out, eject... Oh and the F-117 is a bomber, a fighter it wasn't, that would have to wait for the F-22 Raptor. The B-1 was the swing wing bomber and I think all the B-1's might still be in service too, maybe.

The B-2 can't fly without computers either.

However, I bet the military planes are designed to do what the pilot tells them and not do his/her thinking for him/her.

In the case of the B-2, it's cause there is no tail, that's why the flying wing from years ago never got beyond testing, no computers to help out, as long as one flies level or climbs or descends correctly, there shouldn't be a problem, but some modes presented unfixable problems back in the 50's, the arrival of small computers fixed the previously unfixable problems.

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

about time.


FAA puts more restrictions on foreign jets at SFO

U.S. aviation officials are no longer allowing foreign airlines to land alongside another plane when touching down at San Francisco International Airport in the wake of the deadly Asiana Airlines crash.

I would never fly Aeroflot... Their planes and pilots are just not suitable for the airline business

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rOZZ
Music
Pictures

about time.


FAA puts more restrictions on foreign jets at SFO

U.S. aviation officials are no longer allowing foreign airlines to land alongside another plane when touching down at San Francisco International Airport in the wake of the deadly Asiana Airlines crash.

If you can't fly a plane safely looking out the window, you shouldn't be flying a plane. What happens when there is a power failure at the airport and all the navigation aids are out? Now try it with a partial failure on the airplane. Good simulator exercise.

I note down south at LAX for as many years as I can remember only the domestic airlines are cleared for the visual approach. For those unfamiliar SFO has 2 parallel runways, LAX has 4.

Typical instruction at LAX is report another aircraft in sight and then be cleared to pull up along side, but do not pass, "he is for the north complex, you are for the south"

Oh, making matters more confusing at LAX is Hawthorne Airport. It sits a 1/2 mile south of the approach path to LAX and about four miles short and its runway is the same direction as LAX. About every couple of months or so, some jet jockey mistakes that runway for LAX and starts descending to land there. IIRC at least one puddle jumper actually landed and he got stopped. Couldn't take off so they had to take the plane apart and truck it away. It happens often enough the controllers spot it or the trailing aircraft does and radios the embarrassment to the crew before disaster happens.

Some years back they changed the ATIS to remind pilots "simultaneous visual and instrument approaches in use for runways 24 and 25 and Hawthorn." Yes idiot, there is another airport out there.

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Oh, making matters more confusing at LAX is Hawthorne Airport. It sits a 1/2 mile south of the approach path to LAX and about four miles short and its runway is the same direction as LAX. About every couple of months or so, some jet jockey mistakes that runway for LAX and starts descending to land there. IIRC at least one puddle jumper actually landed and he got stopped. Couldn't take off so they had to take the plane apart and truck it away. It happens often enough the controllers spot it or the trailing aircraft does and radios the embarrassment to the crew before disaster happens.

Some years back they changed the ATIS to remind pilots "simultaneous visual and instrument approaches in use for runways 24 and 25 and Hawthorn." Yes idiot, there is another airport out there.

Reminds me of a book I read a few years ago. I wish I could remember the title; something like Crazy in the air. A woman recounts her career from answering the ad for a free flying lesson in her college newspaper all the way to becoming a captain for an airline.

Three women were hired as pilots on this airline at about the same time, and the ditziest of them was the first promoted to captain. The first time the author flew with this captain, she kept heading for the wrong place and brushing off the author's attempts to correct her. Finally, the controller came on the radio and asked what was going on, and then she corrected. But when they landed, the captain went into the tower and blamed the whole thing on the author.

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David
Sitting on my butt while others boldly go,
Waiting for a message from a small furry creature from Alpha Centauri.