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Emergency Autoland in 3 minutes
speed is set to 10 knots below Vmo/ Mmo, and power is adjusted. The pilot will adjust power at a level-off of 15,000 feet, or the autothrottle will maintain airspeed. If this wasn’t cool enough, if the system doesn’t record any pilot interaction within one min- ute, the Emergency Autoland will activate if equipped.
In February 2007, a King Air B200, like the one we were flying, had a cracked windshield at FL270, later traced to a manufacturing defect. The crew depressurized the aircraft; however, they had turned off the oxy- gen before flight. After fumbling for a minute, they passed out. The King Air descended without their input until 7,800 MSL, when they regained con- sciousness and fortunately landed, but the plane was totaled. As pilots, we hope to avoid this situation and follow proper procedures. However, they are not alone. In the 12 years preceding this accident, 160 King Air windshields fractured; several crews did not follow procedures. In many other cases of hypoxia, airplane oc- cupants weren’t so lucky. This system alone could save lives.
It was time to see how all these components work together with the Garmin Emergency Autoland (EAL) system. We notified ATC we were heading back to Appleton and acti- vating the emergency landing capa- bility. The system can be manually activated or automatically engaged if the pilot is unresponsive after spe- cific time periods or either ESP or EDM activation.
weather (IMC, VMC, gusts, precipita- tion), towered airports, military or Class B airports, and available fuel. Each factor has a particular score, or weight, that varies with the de- sired condition. After the software has made the runway selection based upon a merit-weighting of all the pa- rameters, the next step is to develop a route to that airport.
Routing is based on endurance, terrain, weather avoidance, and ob- stacles. It utilizes current weather to avoid hazardous conditions (hail, severe weather, etc.) and a predictive mode to determine if the weather
Rich and Garmin Team with Garmin’s Autoland King Air B200 at Appleton, WI
I pushed the magic button – Emergency Autoland—and the auto- pilot activated in level (LVL) mode. I was notified with a CAS message that EAL would activate in 15 seconds. I kept my arms folded. A video ap- peared on the MFD informing the passengers that EAL was activated.
The system continues to display messages, notifying the passengers of the process, including time to landing and endurance. One of the follow- ing decisions made by the system is selecting the optimal airport and runway. Airport selection is based upon several factors, including RNAV approach, hard surface, minimum runway length of 4,000 feet, and a 100-foot-wide runway if possible. EAL may evaluate other factors for selection, including airspace, run- way alignment with the approach,
might move and interfere with the calculated f light path. If the weather changes after passing a waypoint, it adapts and modifies the route as needed. If icing is predicted, the anti- ice and deice systems are activated. If the present altitude is too high or the speed too fast, it will add a hold- ing pattern to descend appropriately for a reasonable descent to the FAF. It can even decide either a left or right pattern for terrain. If the MAP is not at the runway threshold, the system will calculate a pseudo-MAP at the runway threshold. There is no missed approach procedure; the system doesn’t need a specific ceiling height or visibility – it isn’t looking outside for those elements.
Our flight plan was replaced with appropriate routing back to the FAF for the RNAV runway 20 approach,
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