Advanced Pilot: Start With Level

By Dave Hirschman

A new generation of autopilots is about to start entering the general aviation fleet with tremendous promise for flight safety, simplicity, and flying enjoyment.

Because of the lower cost of equipping Experimental amateur-built aircraft with innovative technologies, these digital autopilots have logged hundreds of thousands of flight hours in the Experimental world. Now, two manufacturers—TruTrak and Trio—have received FAA permission to install their products in a broad range of Standard-category aircraft. Dynon and Garmin quickly followed with their own proven autopilots.

Digital autopilots have capabilities such as tracking flight plans, holding altitude, climbing and descending at selected rates and airspeeds, overspeed and underspeed protection, and an emergency level button. This new technology has tremendous potential to help GA pilots avoid VFR into IMC and other setups for accidents. But there are potential pitfalls, too. Autopilots can lead to more “heads-down” time in which pilots preoccupied with pushing buttons aren’t looking outside—and, used improperly, autopilots actually can induce stalls.

So how can GA pilots make sure these new autopilots work for us and not against us? What’s the right way to ensure the new technology is a help instead of hindrance?

Airline pilots faced just this sort of conundrum in the 1990s, and a series of accidents were blamed on pilot “automation dependence.” In 1997, then-American Airlines Chief Pilot Warren Van Der Burgh gave a talk he called “Children of the Magenta Line” (https://vimeo.com/159496346), referring to the distinctive color of GPS course lines. It offers insights relevant to GA pilots today.

Van Der Burgh breaks down airline flight into three levels of complexity: manual, autopilot, and operating through the flight management computer. Pilots should constantly ask themselves which level is appropriate for each phase of flight, and go up or down a level if that increases their situational awareness or decreases their workload.

For example, pilots fly manually during the takeoff and initial climb, and then engage the autopilot when they want to fly a particular heading or climb to an assigned altitude. If they’re flying a standard instrument departure, they could program their route on a flight management computer, and it could guide them across a continent—or an ocean.

During descent, pilots would go down a level of technology while being vectored to follow other traffic in a busy terminal area, then click the autopilot off and fly manually during a visual approach and landing.

Van Der Burgh recalls being horrified when he saw a crew trying to avoid airborne traffic by hurrying to reprogram the flight management computer. The right answer, he said, was to simply turn off the technology, hand fly, and keep the other airplane in sight.

I recently added a Garmin autopilot to my Experimental-category airplane, and I’ve been following a version of Van Der Burgh’s philosophy in how I employ it. This autopilot system, like many of its peers, is always powered on, has a Level button, and is ready to spring into action at any time.

When engaging the autopilot, my mantra is “start with level.” A single touch of the Level button lives up to its name. It keeps the airplane wings level at its current altitude, so no surprises there. Next, select a mode (either Heading or Nav) for directional guidance. So far, so good. Then select an altitude, and another mode (vertical speed or indicated airspeed) to determine how to get there.

If you ever become task saturated, or wonder why the autopilot is doing something you don’t think it should be doing, go down a level of complexity. Click it off if necessary.

Similarly, if you’re flying manually but would like to do something else (such as looking ahead for updated weather at your destination), engage the autopilot; let it fly a particular heading; altitude, or route; and improve your situational awareness by looking at the bigger picture. If you’re flying VFR and inadvertently encounter clouds, haze, or reduced visibility, let the autopilot keep the airplane straight and level while you determine the best way to get back in the clear.

Van Der Burgh emphasizes the importance of keeping a tactile connection to the airplane through hands and feet on the controls, even when the automation is directing it. That physical connection, and the act of mentally thinking ahead and anticipating what is likely to come next, is essential for pilots in command.

Autopilots have tremendous potential to help us fly more accurately and safely—but they’re not magic. It’s up to the pilot community to decide how and when to use them, as well as when not to.

Dave Hirschman is an editor at large for Flight Training.