Autoland
Autoland describes a system that fully automates the landing phase of an aircraft’s flight, with the human crew supervising the process.
According to SKYbrary, the pilots assume a monitoring role during the final stages of the approach and will only intervene in the event of a system failure or emergency and, after landing, to taxi the aircraft off of the runway and to the parking location.
Still, many airline pilots prefer to land their aircraft manually.
Why is that?
John Chesire, former captain for a major US airline, explains on Quora;
‘I most always landed manually. I just wanted to and I usually did. It is because I am pilot, and I love to fly and to control an airplane. It is a challenge. It is my joy and my profession. It also is a lot more fun and much more satisfying than me punching buttons for an approach into the computer, selecting autopilot, and then just sitting back to monitor it all.’
‘Moreover, since a majority of any flight is on autopilot, it is very important to keep one’s hands-on flying skills fresh.
‘At my airline, we were required by maintenance to do an auto approach/autoland occasionally every few months to check out the systems, which I did but didn’t like to.
‘However, on dark stormy nights, or after flying all night and trying to land in thick fog with minimum visibility or heavy rain, the auto approach/autoland feature was a wonderful blessing that I did not hesitate to use!
Safety margin
‘I should also add that in certain extreme circumstances, the pilot does not have a choice. In very extreme weather conditions, and only if the pilots have been adequately trained and the airport is so equipped, an auto-approach and autoland is mandated. Or else they divert to an alternate airfield. But not so much on a bright, sunny day.
‘The safety margin is about the same for both types of approaches. Indeed, I almost always land better than the auto-land does. One type of approach is no less, and no more safe than the other. But most pilots just naturally enjoy one over the other.
‘However just because one “enjoys” one over the other has no bearing on safety.’
Chesire concludes;
‘We are highly trained professionals and safety is our #1 priority. We know what we are doing, or we would never do it. The buck stops with us, and if something is not right, we don’t do it, and answer questions later about our more safe decision. Remember, not only are our passengers’ safety supremely important, so is our crews’ safety and ours too, we sitting up front.’
Photo credit: Oscar Elvir Vasquez and Themightyquill via Wikipedia
