Autopilot

“ THE WITNESS: It is entirely up to the judgment of the instructor pilot whether either hand-fly -- hand-flying or autopilot mode is to be used. However, in the initial period of flight for the sake of flight control -- better control, manual flying mode is more frequently practiced. That is for the initial phase of the training process. ”

“ For the later stage of the training process auto -- the autopilot mode is more frequently instructed.
When manual flight is being executed, it starts from under altitude 10,000 feet. When the weather condition is IMC, then the autopilot's mode is suggested -- recommended. The use of autopilot indicates a non-precision. It's limited to MDA only. That's all.
CAPTAIN MISENCIK: Do Korean Air procedures require that the correct navigation frequency is tuned and identified?
THE WITNESS: Yes, it is a requirement, and that's the responsibilities of all the crews -- all the crew involved. ”

“ The study concluded that a first officer "may be concerned that a challenge to a decision may be perceived as a direct challenge to the captain's authority."
The Safety Board is concerned that the use of the nonflying pilot in a passive role, while the flying pilot is responsible for the approach procedure, programming the autopilot/FD controls, and monitoring the aircraft flightpath, places an inordinately high work load on the flying pilot and undertasks the nonflying pilot. ”

“ The large ship under autopilot control will not anticipate the turn in a channel, and will not begin the turn until the antenna of the positioning system, presumably GPS and often located in the stern of the ship, is at the exact waypoint. ”

“ Boeing engineers stated that, when the autopilot's ILS mode is selected by the pilot and a sufficient glideslope signal exists, the glideslope "armed" indicator is annunciated in the cockpit with an amber light. The pitch and roll computers maintain pitch control and operate in any of the following modes: "Altitude Hold," "Altitude Select," "Indicated Airspeed Hold," or "Vertical Speed." When the deviation of the glideslope signal reaches a predetermined level, the vertical beam sensor automatically switches the landing rollout computer function to control the pitch axis of the elevator. ”

“ We'll observe them in accordance with whatever long waves they emit; they will in no way resemble the familiar stars we know."
"How's a poor devil going to navigate at any rate?" asked Larry. "With everything out of place—or invisible—what's he going to use for signposts?"
"In normal usage, the super drive will be fine. We've been using autopilots for years and years, setting up the whole course from take-off to the last half hour of landing. We can still do it. We'll be flying blind, but so what? We fly pretty blind as it is; no one gives a rap about the sky outside. ”

“ The levers and controls are the nervous system of the airplane, through which the will of the aviator may be expressed—expressed in an infinitely fine degree. Indeed, a flying-machine is something entirely apart from and above all other contrivances of man's ingenuity. It is the nearest thing to animate life which man has created. In the air an airplane ceases to be a mere piece of dumb mechanism; it seems to throb with feeling, and is capable not only of primary guidance and control, but actually of expressing a pilot's temperament. ”

“ Another risk, that of engine failure, may, as we have explained, be eliminated by the use of more than one motor. In the application of such systems there is still much to be learned; but the obstacles are not insuperable. One advantage that can be offered the aerial tourist, reckoning him as a pilot of no more than average skill, who needs all the aid that science can give him, is that he can obtain a machine which, owing to its automatic stability, requires merely to be taken into the air and brought to earth again, and which will practically fly itself, once it is aloft. ”

“ To operate this stabilizer of ours all the pilot will have to do is to guide the rudder with his feet. The automatic pilot works the elevator and the ailerons. It takes care of 'bumps' and 'holes' and sees that the machine banks at just the right angle on the turns. This makes the operation of an airplane containing the stabilizer even more simple than running a motor-car, because you do not have to worry about going into different speed gears when climbing or descending. ”

“ The flying machine which will navigate successfully in a perfectly quiet atmosphere may be unseaworthy, or rather, unairworthy, when a wind springs up, or the shifting of the wind may spoil all the air pilot’s plans. To add to his troubles, the aviator must move among air currents which change and change again in a moment’s time. As we study the difficulties of air navigation we will appreciate, more than ever, the wonderful patience, skill, and daring of the successful aviators.
The action of the air currents had first to be carefully studied before flight became possible. ”

“ To stand near one of the pylons—wooden towers which mark the turning-points of the course—and see the air-racers come rushing by, is to gain such an impression of speed as almost makes the watcher hold his breath. The pilot in a flying race has one chief aim: to fly the shortest way. Every fraction of a second is of importance; and if he can circle the pylons more skilfully than his rivals, he may win the race, even though his machine—in its actual speed—may be no faster than theirs. ”

“ Steadily forwards we fly, and it is easy to see how, with the ever more distinct roar of our engines, the searchlight becomes more excited and more eager to find us. Nearer and nearer, with a slow beat from side to side like a pendulum, it draws towards us. I almost want to pull back my head to avoid having my nose taken off. Then the searchlight flashes on the machine for a moment, becomes tremendously excited, and leaps back again towards us.
The pilot swiftly pulls back the throttle and throws over his wheel. The thunder of the engine ceases; we turn to the left and leave him wondering. ”

“ If the engine stopped unexpectedly when flying straight, he must instinctively push the stick forward, keep the nose down, and keep his flying speed. If it stopped during a turn, he must rudder into the turn and keep his flying speed. Always he must do these things instinctively when the motor failed.
Dad and Armbruster and Jack all had stories to tell of some spectacular experience when motors failed at crucial moments in the air. Always when in the air the pilot’s ear is attuned to the steady beat of the motor and he listens for its first missing stroke. ”

“ The idea of man being part of machine harks back to youthful rides in soapbox racers, and later experiences driving cars or flying aircraft. The pilot who flew “by the seat of his pants” in the early days easily felt himself part of the machine. As planes—and cars—grew bigger and more complex, this “one-manship” became more remote and harder to identify. The jet transport pilot may well have the feeling of handling a train when he applies force to his controls and must wait for it to be amplified through a servo system and finally act on the air stream. ”

“ All airmen unite in declaring that even to the novice in an airplane there is none of that sense of dizziness or vertigo which so many people experience in looking down from high places. The flyer has no sense of motion. A speed of forty miles an hour and of one hundred miles are the same to him. As he looks down the earth seems to be slipping away from him, and moving by, tailwards, like an old-fashioned panorama being unwound.
Everything about the control of an airplane has to be learned mechanically. Once learned the aviator applies his knowledge intuitively. ”

“ The Master laid one hand easily on the rim of the big steering-wheel, flung his cap upon a locker, pulled down the telephone headpiece and snapped it on.
He touched a button. The light died in the pilot-house, leaving only the hooded glows of the dials, switches, and small levers. Night seemed suddenly to close in about the vast machine. Till now it had been forgotten, ignored. But as darkness fingered at the panes, something of the vastness of sky and air made itself realized; something of the illimitable scope of this adventuring. ”

“ They also check instruments, lights, pitot and carbureter heat, safety belts, power settings, emergency equipment, current for communications and radar, and other things. In flight, the pilot does not use the throttle unnecessarily, but chiefly to maintain air speed. Actually it may be said that there are three pilots. The third one, sometimes known as “George,” is the auto-pilot, which may do most of the flying, except in rough weather and in landing and take-off. Keeping the plane on course on a long flight would be very tiring otherwise. The limits of air speed vary. ”

“ This instinctive control of his machine is absolutely essential for the fighting pilot who must keep his eyes on the movements of his enemy, watch out for possible aircraft guns below, (p. 115) and all the time be striving to get an advantageous position whence he can turn his machine gun loose. A row of gauges, dials, a compass, and a map on the frame of the car in which he sits will engage his attention in any moments of leisure. It is needless to remark that the successful pilot must have a quick eye and steady nerves. ”

“ Even Jack apparently had never heard about that clever device, however primitive it might seem when placed alongside the wonderful means at present used to ascertain the same things—such as slipping, skidding, turning, climbing, or diving—today the experienced pilot watches the air-speed instrument, his compass, the bank and turn indicator. Only by placing entire dependence on the instruments in the cockpit can a pilot fly with any certainty in foggy weather, when it is utterly impossible to see any fixed point, either on the earth below or in the heavens above. ”

“ Lynds was about seventy miles up, his velocity down to a point or two over Mach 2, in level flight heading east over the south Atlantic. From about that altitude, manual controls are essential, not just to make one feel better, but because you really need them. The automated controls did not have any tolerance. You don't understand, do you? Look, when one flies and wants to alter direction, one applies pressure to the control surfaces, altering their positions, redirecting the flow of air over the wings, the rudder and so forth. ”

“ And so when a machine lost headway through engine failure, and was not put quickly enough into a glide, it happened often that it had come in contact with the earth, and had been wrecked, before there was any chance for the pilot to regain control, or for the machine itself to exhaust its side-slip, and come back to anything like a normal position.
But the failure of the human factor in flying, the lack of skill of a pilot that may lead to disaster, is shown74 by statistics to play no more than a small part, when accidents are studied in numbers and in detail. ”

“ To understand what this means it should be realised that, when such a machine is in flight say in war on a strategical reconnaissance, and carries pilot and passenger, the former can take it to a suitable altitude and then set and lock his controls, and afterwards devote his time, in common with that of his passenger, to the making of observations or the writing of notes. The machine meanwhile flies itself, adapting itself automatically to all the differences of wind pressure which, if it had not this natural stability, would need a constant action of the pilot to overcome. ”

“ They proved Lynds nuts, and got rid of me, but nobody would try it, even with manual controls, where there is no atmosphere.
When you're putting down after a maximum velocity flight, you feed a set of landing coordinates into the computer, and you wait for the computer to punch out a landing configuration and the controls set themselves and lock into pattern. Then you just sit there. I haven't yet met a pilot who didn't begin to sweat at that moment, and sweat all the way down. ”

“ A matter which is easier, and for which straightforward ruling may be framed, concerns the navigation of craft upon the airway. At present, with comparatively few machines, there is no great need for any code of rules: one pilot, should he sight another, can easily steer clear. But as the air becomes peopled, and there are streams of traffic between landing grounds, it will be very necessary to have a scheme of rules—rules, say, for meeting and passing, and for flying by day or night. ”

“ With the aeroplane engine, even with types that have gained a high average of reliability, there are many possibilities of a slight mishap—each of them sufficient, for the moment, to put an engine out of action—that the pilot who is flying across country must, all the time he is in the air, have at the back of his mind the thought that at any moment, and perhaps without any warning, he may find that his motive power has gone. ”

“ But besides all that, there are automatic controls that turn on the front air blast at the exact time required to counteract the velocity. I am told that the pilots do not consider it good form to use the automatic controls except in emergencies."
"What went wrong with this projectile?"
"Ah well, you see a woman is still an unknown quantity. I'll admit they are much more brainy, but for dependability and consideration, I prefer the man. This woman pilot has missed her vocation, because she is too clever. In this age very clever people are seldom matrimonially inclined. ”

“ If it were not for this arrangement, the ends of the planes in turning would tend to rise, since they travel the faster, and the machine would be in danger of upsetting. The ends of the planes may also be flexed separately when the machine is in straight flight, whenever it becomes necessary to balance it against a dangerous air current or a gust of wind. The pilot, it will be seen, has every point of the great machine, as it were, at his finger ends. ”