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press-to-talk button. The display helpfully suggests, “speak clearly and slowly” and shows the aircraft’s N- number for reference. Garmin tested every aspect with nonpilots within its human resources team as well as others. They tweaked everything from the calming voice of the verbal instructions to explicit instructions on preparing for landing, and how and when to open the door.
Meanwhile, Autoland squawks 7700 and broadcasts automated an- nouncements on 121.5 as well as tower frequency or CTAF advising that the aircraft is declaring an emer- gency and executing an Autoland at the selected airport. The system even listens first to ensure it does not step on other transmissions before it broadcasts.
A push of the red button isn’t the only way Autoland can be ac- tivated. If the pilot loses conscious- ness and stops responding to G3000 prompts, the system will execute an
emergency descent and prompt the pilot again. If they do respond, Au- toland is not activated. If they don’t, Autoland takes over. At any time Autoland can be disarmed by press- ing the autopilot disconnect button on the yoke.
According to Bailey Scheel, Gar- min’s senior programs manager and systems engineer who led the certi- fication program effort, the program was offered to several aircraft manu- facturers, with Piper and Cirrus be- ing the first adopters. At this time, Autoland works with the G3000 NX, Garmin’s current advanced f light deck, with legacy G1000 systems lacking the computing power and capability of supporting Autoland.
The Autoland feature set can be adopted and customized to individ- ual aircraft capabilities and needs. Garmin can foresee a more limited Autoland system for a light piston single. It has said there has been in- terest up-market in Part 25 aircraft.
“When we started this project, Garmin already had all the pieces – the autopilot, navigation, commu- nication – we just needed to develop a system to have them all work to- gether along with autothrottle and auto-braking,” concluded Carl Wolf, Garmin vice president aviation sales and marketing. “Garmin devoted hundreds of engineers and years of development to make it a reality be- cause we felt it was our mission to save lives. While we hope it is never needed, if it saves one aircraft and its passengers, it will all have been worth it.”
Dianne White is the executive director of MMOPA and editor of MMOPA Maga- zine. For a total of 14 years, she was edi- tor of Twin & Turbine and has worked in the business aviation industry for nearly 30 years. She also serves on the board of directors for Angel Flight Central. An active multi-engine, instrument-rated pilot, Dianne lives in the Kansas City area and can be reached at editor@ diannewhite.com.
16 • TWIN & TURBINE / December 2019
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