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Originally Posted by santhosh_kumard Most modern aircrafts fly with the help of computer and from what I know pilots take over during take-off/landing/turbulence. |
Very few, if any, commercial and or GA aircraft are capable of auto take off, although just all of them have have auto throttles, but the pilot is manually controlling yoke and rudder. There are several military planes that do fully automated "hands off" take offs. Notably the American F18 Hornet when it gets launched from the catapult of an aircraft carrier will have the pilot's hand on special grab handles to keep his hands from touching any of the controls.
Just about all commercial and or GA aircraft have elaborated autopilot system that allow the plane to land fully automatic, even in near zero visibility. On most planes, even with elaborate autopilot system, lowering/raising the landing gear and flaps is not automated and requires manual intervention by the pilot. Same for setting or arming spoilers, auto brake systems etc.
It's mostly company policy that dictates whether pilots will land on auto or manual. Most carriers will require a certain number of landing by their pilots to be made manually. Depending on your type of license/rating there could also be certain legal requirements on certain flight time and or manoevres. MInd you, these days a lot of that can be done on Full motion simulators as well, which is a lot cheaper and more efficient way of training pilots.
There is no reason why you would take a plane of the autopilot in turbulence. The only adjustment the pilot is likely to have to make is speed. (typically you slow down and different max speed for clear air and turbulent air might apply. Fact is that modern auto pilots fly much better and more precise than the best pilot!
Speed is just an input into the flight computer and or auto pilot, you typically punch or dial in the required speed, tell the electronics to execute and auto pilot and auto throttle will do the rest. Same for trying out a different altitude where turbulence might be less.
Having computers control your car will introduce a host of other problems. If the aviation industry is anything to go by, you could definitely say that the introduction of advanced electronic automated system has made aviation considerably safer and more economical and efficient. On the down side, it has introduced a very different type of pilot and pilot training. The idea that the computer will do everything is a long way off. All these automated system need monitoring, oversight and constant adjustments by humans. Some day it might be all fully automated, but we're not there yet by any stretch of the imagination.
One of the reasons behind the auto pilot, auto throttle and flight management systems is also that they allow the pilot(s) to concentrate on other tasks than flying.
Although, the jury is still out there on what really happened with the 777 that crashed in San Francisco, it appears that the crew was not familiar (enough) with the auto throttle system, did not understand what they could expect from it, how to use it and also reacted to late to the various system read outs.
When you start automating cars we are very likely to see similar patterns. Of course, we have pretty neat automated systems on some of our cars already. Such as adaptive cruise control. Volvo collision warning with auto brake system and there are probably a few more.
Although I absolutely loved to fly with auto pilot, when it comes to cars I'm happy enough with a good cruise control system on my car and I'll do the rest all by myself, thank you very much.
Mind you, I have always had a weak spot for automation and control systems, its one of the main subjects in Naval College. So when this starts finding its way into cars, I'll be very happy to figure it all out. I have a bookcase full of manuals on the Boeing 747 systems and I just love to figure out how it all works. So looking forward to all this new stuff, although I might not use it all the time myself.
Jeroen