There are 67 comments.

1. Coolidge
   Flicker

   @Flicker

   7:49 PM EDT ⋅ Oct 15, 2021

   Percival (View Comment):

   kedavis (View Comment):

   Percival (View Comment):

   Flicker (View Comment):

   Percival (View Comment):

   Flicker (View Comment):

   Stad (View Comment):

   Dr. Bastiat (View Comment):

   Stad (View Comment):

   With what’s been going on with self-driving cars, why is there no talk of self-flying airplanes?

   My friend was a pilot for United Airlines. They told him not to touch the controls – it was more efficient if the plane flew itself. He was only there in case something went wrong. He eventually retired early, because he said he was getting rusty – he rarely flew a plane anymore, and he was worried that his skills were deteriorating to the point that he might have difficulty jumping in if something did go wrong…

   I can understand with the autopilot, going from A to B is easier to manage. But there are significantly more variables on takeoffs and landings such that I wouldn’t feel comfortable as a passenger, much less a pilot, if the plane were allowed to fly the entire route by itself.

   Can an autopilot see the extent of flames on engine number 2? Or does it not need to?

   It’ll have temperature sensors that ought to let both the system and the cockpit know.

   But I mean when no one’s in the cockpit. Can any, does any, auto=pilot handle a duck sucked into the engine on take-off, or over the ocean? Or an even less-expected event?

   I know that military jets can avoid a collision with the ground if a pilot blacks out, but can one navigate back to the airfield and land on it’s own?

   I just want to know the state of the art.

   Generally, no.

   Sounds like they can do without licensed pilots about as well as self-driving cars can do without licensed drivers.

   You get things out of a pilot that no autopilot can ever give you. Intuition. Judgement.

   Would they have kept the MCAS unknown to the auto-pilot?

2. Thatcher
   Percival

   @Percival

   

   7:55 PM EDT ⋅ Oct 15, 2021

   Flicker (View Comment):

   Percival (View Comment):

   kedavis (View Comment):

   Percival (View Comment):

   Flicker (View Comment):

   Percival (View Comment):

   Flicker (View Comment):

   Stad (View Comment):

   Dr. Bastiat (View Comment):

   Stad (View Comment):

   With what’s been going on with self-driving cars, why is there no talk of self-flying airplanes?

   My friend was a pilot for United Airlines. They told him not to touch the controls – it was more efficient if the plane flew itself. He was only there in case something went wrong. He eventually retired early, because he said he was getting rusty – he rarely flew a plane anymore, and he was worried that his skills were deteriorating to the point that he might have difficulty jumping in if something did go wrong…

   I can understand with the autopilot, going from A to B is easier to manage. But there are significantly more variables on takeoffs and landings such that I wouldn’t feel comfortable as a passenger, much less a pilot, if the plane were allowed to fly the entire route by itself.

   Can an autopilot see the extent of flames on engine number 2? Or does it not need to?

   It’ll have temperature sensors that ought to let both the system and the cockpit know.

   But I mean when no one’s in the cockpit. Can any, does any, auto=pilot handle a duck sucked into the engine on take-off, or over the ocean? Or an even less-expected event?

   I know that military jets can avoid a collision with the ground if a pilot blacks out, but can one navigate back to the airfield and land on it’s own?

   I just want to know the state of the art.

   Generally, no.

   Sounds like they can do without licensed pilots about as well as self-driving cars can do without licensed drivers.

   You get things out of a pilot that no autopilot can ever give you. Intuition. Judgement.

   Would they have kept the MCAS unknown to the auto-pilot?

   I think the MCAS was an augmentation to the autopilot.

3. Coolidge
   DonG (CAGW is a hoax)

   @DonG

   9:19 PM EDT ⋅ Oct 15, 2021

   Jerry Giordano (Arizona Patrio… (View Comment):

   I have not evaluated the legality of the federal vaccine mandate is question.

   If it is legal, and has the force of federal law, then Texas law cannot invalidate it, under the Supremacy Clause.

   Is it possible the effect of the two orders means that Texas businesses cannot become federal contractors? 

4. Inactive
   Norm McDonald Bought The Farm

   @Pseudodionysius

   9:52 PM EDT ⋅ Oct 15, 2021

   Mark Camp (View Comment):

   kedavis (View Comment):

   Percival (View Comment):
   ACARS (Aircraft Communications, Reporting, and Addressing System. Yeah, the acronym is out of order. I blame the French.)

   It’s easier to day “ACARS” than “ACRAS.”

   I find both acronyms equally difficult to day.

   ACARS-COV-2

5. Coolidge
   Flicker

   @Flicker

   11:02 PM EDT ⋅ Oct 15, 2021

   Percival (View Comment):

   Flicker (View Comment):

   Percival (View Comment):

   kedavis (View Comment):

   Percival (View Comment):

   Flicker (View Comment):

   Percival (View Comment):

   Flicker (View Comment):

   Stad (View Comment):

   Dr. Bastiat (View Comment):

   Stad (View Comment):

   With what’s been going on with self-driving cars, why is there no talk of self-flying airplanes?

   My friend was a pilot for United Airlines. They told him not to touch the controls – it was more efficient if the plane flew itself. He was only there in case something went wrong. He eventually retired early, because he said he was getting rusty – he rarely flew a plane anymore, and he was worried that his skills were deteriorating to the point that he might have difficulty jumping in if something did go wrong…

   I can understand with the autopilot, going from A to B is easier to manage. But there are significantly more variables on takeoffs and landings such that I wouldn’t feel comfortable as a passenger, much less a pilot, if the plane were allowed to fly the entire route by itself.

   Can an autopilot see the extent of flames on engine number 2? Or does it not need to?

   It’ll have temperature sensors that ought to let both the system and the cockpit know.

   But I mean when no one’s in the cockpit. Can any, does any, auto=pilot handle a duck sucked into the engine on take-off, or over the ocean? Or an even less-expected event?

   I know that military jets can avoid a collision with the ground if a pilot blacks out, but can one navigate back to the airfield and land on it’s own?

   I just want to know the state of the art.

   Generally, no.

   Sounds like they can do without licensed pilots about as well as self-driving cars can do without licensed drivers.

   You get things out of a pilot that no autopilot can ever give you. Intuition. Judgement.

   Would they have kept the MCAS unknown to the auto-pilot?

   I think the MCAS was an augmentation to the autopilot.

   Yes, I can see that but it was separate enough that it activated with the auto pilot off.  I was just kidding though about making the auto-pilot aware of it.  As if the auto-pilot was privy to functions that the pilots weren’t.

6. Member
   Full Size Tabby

   @FullSizeTabby

   7:05 AM EDT ⋅ Oct 16, 2021

   Percival (View Comment):
   ACARS (Aircraft Communications, Reporting, and Addressing System. Yeah, the acronym is out of order. I blame the French.)

   The data field acronyms in a database I worked with for years made no sense to me until I learned that a French company had designed the original structure of the database (nothing to do with aircraft, but yes French language structure does keep influencing acronyms). 

7. Coolidge
   Stad

   @Stad

   6:05 AM EDT ⋅ Oct 17, 2021

   Flicker (View Comment):

   Stad (View Comment):

   Dr. Bastiat (View Comment):

   Stad (View Comment):

   With what’s been going on with self-driving cars, why is there no talk of self-flying airplanes?

   My friend was a pilot for United Airlines. They told him not to touch the controls – it was more efficient if the plane flew itself. He was only there in case something went wrong. He eventually retired early, because he said he was getting rusty – he rarely flew a plane anymore, and he was worried that his skills were deteriorating to the point that he might have difficulty jumping in if something did go wrong…

   I can understand with the autopilot, going from A to B is easier to manage. But there are significantly more variables on takeoffs and landings such that I wouldn’t feel comfortable as a passenger, much less a pilot, if the plane were allowed to fly the entire route by itself.

   Can an autopilot see the extent of flames on engine number 2? Or does it not need to?

   There are probably fire detectors in the engines.  Pilots may not be able to see them . . .

   Update:

   However, surely the pilots can hear the screaming passengers, “The engine’s on fire!”