What is the obsession with the Autoland?

[MarkW 1,493]

You would be absolutely shocked at how many simmers cannot actually hand fly the aircraft on takeoff and landing. I see this all the time when controlling on Vatsim. Now in fairness hand flying FS presents lots of challenges depending on your hardware and certainly trimming is not as easy as the real thing, however, in a few cases there are really great addons to hand fly. The level D 767 is one at the top of my list, Concorde X is amazing especially given the delta wing and high speed, the NGX is excellent although I don't have enough hours to really be able to comment properly. Mark.

[VLJ510 16]

Trust me autolands are rare in the real world. Only used in bad weather and low visiblity. I gurantee you none of of the pilots in the video below were autolanding.

Not sure what crosswind landing have to do with autoland as those caliber of winds would surpass the limits of autoland. I do recall in the AoA 747-400 training DVD Chris mentions that autoland do happen in perfectly clear weather to test the systems and some airliners test this every 4th landing as per SOP. True CATIIIB landing in weather that need this system are rare but to test and run these systems is not. But to my understanding if a plane has autoland capability then it must be test every so many cycles and not just use when you face crap weather. Even TABS said this about his dad real world flight at United on 757/767 and that every so many landing cycles these systems are tested. EDIT: found TABS posted dates 2002 5th on http://forum.avsim.net/topic/125451-do-real-767-pilots-use-autoland/ Edited August 19, 2011 by VLJ510

[DescendDescend 25]

Learning about autoland and seeing it operate correctly has no baring on how often I use it.

[JokersWild 34]

I'm using mine as a crop duster. The HUD makes getting under those power lines much easier. Can we get an agri rig option for under the wings?

[NM5K 1]

Dunno... hand landing is easy for me.. No harder than parking a car in a garage..And it doesn't really matter what kind of plane. I fly everything from the poweredgliders, to 172's, to Barons, to P-51's, to F/A 18's, to 747's, even the 737 NGX.. Oh yea, the space shuttle too, back when I had that rigged up.You name it, I've landed that bad boy on the sim. And usually landed it well. chortle..Every time I post a video of a landing, I usually get a "good landing" comment. :) Course, I've been sim flying since 92, and have about 49 zillion landings undermy belt. It's just something that comes natural to me I guess..If I do an autoland, it's because I like to watch all the systems at work, and toverify that the model actually will do the dirty deed.

[RYR738 9]

I think people just want to know how it all works and get to understand it. know some RW pilots who are still afraid of autoland because they never really understood it. I think it was a very good idea from PMDG to have included a Fail Operational landing in the 1st tutorial.It gave newbies a chance to learn how it works and see it in action. From the threads I have been reading it is obvious that most NGX users still don't fully understandhow to make a Fail Passive or Fail Operational autoland. Fred.

[David Roch 1,982]

In the real world the majority of the time planes are landed manually by the pilots and most pilots do not even like using the autoland.

Sorry Paul but this is wrong.Very few things are left today to the pilot's "taste".Airlines decide the conditions of manual landings and 80% of Airbus landings are done via autoland actually.

[andysim 0]

i think pilots are required to do one autolanding a month or something like that,. so if I do 1 a year thats fine hehe. Ive only done 1 so far just to test the aircraft and its very good it it. But its to much fun to fly on manual. In the future there will be no pilots, just a man and a dog. A man to feed the dog and the dog to bite the man if he touches anything

[Paul Deemer 13]

You would be absolutely shocked at how many simmers cannot actually hand fly the aircraft on takeoff and landing. I see this all the time when controlling on Vatsim

Yeah and the majority of them are flying outta places like KATL, KLAX and KSEA, cause that where most of the Noobs start. I even saw one at LAX one night that was using the FSX controls to float a 747-400 around the airport like a UFO and see how many people he could crash. Didn't get me cause I turn it off on the ground till airborne.

[hookandbook2 0]

Why do people even care or wonder how others use their product? ....this thread is bizarre. They bought it, they can use it as they see fit. If they want to use autoland all the time or hand fly all the time it is up to them. I guess I just don't understand why some of you care so much how other people use this video game to even post...lol. What am I missing here? ....do people autolanding in severe clear weather some how effect you?

[Tabs 2,790]

The OP is right - real pilots like to fly their airplanes whenever they get the chance. You don't cross oceans straight and level on LNAV only to sit and watch the computer land the plane too unless you absolutely have to.

[Paul Deemer 13]

Airlines decide the conditions of manual landings and 80% of Airbus landings are done via autoland actually.

That's cause your talking about the ScareBus which is a highly automated aircraft. Were talking about Boeing and the USA.

why some of you care so much how other people use this video game

Video Game? Blasphemy!

[FSMP 95]

Last autoland I did was with the NG. Don't think the main gear would've survived after that. Had something crazy like a 65 knot headwind landing at EGLL. But I manually land otherwise

Ref: PMDG 737NGX : Does it's "Autoland" actually FLARE the plane correctly, or is it really just flying it down the Ils Glideslope, and "slamming" it onto the runway on the 3 deg decent. ? Yes-- I have not got there yet in my PMDG "Training", so I am asking those who have :( Geoff

[RYR738 9]

That's cause your talking about the ScareBus which is a highly automated aircraft. Were talking about Boeing and the USA.

So is the 737NG !! It's usually flown using LNAV, VNAV and autopilot all the way to final approach or just landing. Fred.

Ref: PMDG 737NGX : Does it's "Autoland" actually FLARE the plane correctly, or is it really just flying it down the Ils Glideslope, and "slamming" it onto the runway on the 3 deg decent. ? Yes-- I have not got there yet in my PMDG "Training", so I am asking those who have Geoff

Autoland on the NGX works just like the real thing.It is common to get a fairly Hard touchdown. Fred.

[hookandbook2 0]

That's cause your talking about the ScareBus which is a highly automated aircraft. Were talking about Boeing and the USA. Video Game? Blasphemy!

forum troll Some of you arm chair pilots take yourselves way too seriously