Transformative technology

Pushing the button once in flight starts an elaborate sequence of automated actions that result in the airplane identifying the nearest suitable airport, making emergency radio calls to air traffic controllers, squawking 7700, flying an approach to an appropriate runway, landing, braking to a stop, and shutting down the engine.

“This is the most impactful thing I’ve ever worked on at Cirrus,” said Ivy McIver, Cirrus executive director for the piston fleet of SR20s, SR22s, and SR22Ts. “Safe Return is a tremendous safety feature, and it’s got the potential to open up the idea of general aviation flying to many, many more people.”

The Garmin emergency autoland system that Cirrus calls Safe Return was introduced five years ago in turbine airplanes with full-authority digital engine controls and computerized autothrottles. Cirrus quickly adopted it for its single-engine SF50 Vision Jet, and Garmin won the prestigious Collier Trophy for its innovations. Now, Minnesota-based Cirrus is the first to offer autoland in piston-engine airplanes where it relies on a combination of digital and mechanical controls to accomplish all the same tasks as the turbine version. Bringing Safe Return to the piston fleet is a major milestone for Cirrus, the world’s largest manufacturer of piston aircraft, which produces about 700 new airplanes annually.

Cirrus, Piper, and Daher/TBM all use the Garmin autoland system on their current jet and turboprop lines, Pilatus and Epic have announced they’re adding it to their own single-engine turboprops, and Textron will include it on future King Air twins and Denali single-engine turboprops.

Safely returning

We’re straight and level 4,000 feet over western Maryland when McIver asks me to push the red button and start the Safe Return sequence.

I obediently reach up and hit the button, and the airplane’s first response is engaging the autopilot in “level” mode. Then Safe Return gives us 10 seconds to reconsider as it determines that Eastern West Virginia Regional Airport (MRB) in Martinsburg about 15 miles to the west is our optimal destination and Runway 26 is the place to land.

A series of announcements and graphics on the Garmin primary flight and multifunction displays inform us that the Safe Return system has taken over, and that we’ll be on the ground in about 10 minutes. The pilot can cancel Safe Return at any time by pressing the autopilot disconnect switch.

The throttle lever moves on its own to hold a preprogrammed airspeed of 145 KIAS as the airplane begins a gradual descent. A moving map with a magenta line shows the path the airplane will follow as it moves to intercept the Runway 26 final approach course about five miles from the threshold. It does an admirable job of adjusting for the crosswind at altitude as it follows the magenta line, and the rate of descent is constant at about 800 feet per minute. The outside air temperature is below freezing and the airplane senses that and begins pumping TKS anti-ice fluid onto the wings and windshield as a precaution.

For this demonstration McIver has disabled the automated radio and transponder emergency notifications. She calls the Martinsburg tower controller and gets a landing clearance while the automation does the flying. At a distance of five miles, the airplane deploys 50 percent flaps. It intercepts and tracks vertical and horizontal guidance for the GPS approach to Runway 26 at an indicated airspeed of 95 knots. Safe Return on the SR22T requires a minimum runway length of 4,500 feet and width of 75 feet.

The airplane uses pitch and power together to adjust its speed and follow the approach glidepath, and its corrections—even in smooth air—are relatively coarse and reactive. About 60 feet over the runway threshold, the airplane begins rounding out as the throttle creeps slowly all the way back to idle, and flaps remain at 50 percent.

The airplane’s radar altimeter senses its height above the ground, and the Cirrus makes a timely flare and settles in ground effect. The airplane touches down on the main wheels at a roughly 5-degree nose-up attitude about 2,000 feet down the 8,815-foot Runway 26 and about 20 feet left of center. It applies moderate and steady brake pressure, raises the flaps, and shuts off the electric fuel pump on its own during the rollout. The airplane comes to a full stop about 30 feet left of the centerline as the mixture knob slides all the way back to idle cutoff and the propeller spins to a halt. The airplane has come to a stop on the runway, and a video on the right PFD/MFD shows passengers how to open the door and step out of the airplane.

The approach is intentionally slightly high, fast, and the left-of-center landing is inelegant but within the GPS signal’s margin of error. The approach and touchdown aren’t as smooth or accurate as a seasoned GA pilot would make under similar conditions, or as precise as a fully automated Category III ILS approach. Yet the entire process is controlled and safe, and it can be fully executed by a nonpilot at the touch of a single button.

No turning back

The autoland system looks and acts the same in piston-engine SR aircraft as it does on the SF50 Vision Jet, the Piper M700, and other turbines—and achieving that similarity using both mechanical and digital controls took about four years of dedicated work by teams of highly skilled workers at both Cirrus and Garmin.

The Cirrus SR22 G7 model already was equipped with automatic fuel balancing and a speed-sensing flap system in anticipation of adding Safe Return. But the new technology also required adding a radar altimeter, an independent brake master cylinder, as well as electric servos for the throttle and mixture levers.

Safe Return is an emergency system designed to be deployed by passengers in case of pilot incapacitation. But Safe Return also is programmed to activate itself when it senses the pilot has become unresponsive or succumbed to hypoxia.

It’s also easy to imagine situations in which pilots become overwhelmed and choose to activate Safe Return on their own. A VFR pilot who inadvertently flies into clouds, becomes lost or disoriented, encounters icing conditions, or is emotionally rattled could use it to escape from a variety of tights spots. There are no hard and fast rules on when the autoland system can be activated, and even the definition of an aerial emergency is left somewhat vague on purpose.

In general, Cirrus says Safe Return is there to solve health- or state-of-mind related “pilot problems” while the Cirrus Airframe Parachute System (CAPS) is meant for engine- or airframe-related “airplane problems.”The entire process is controlled and safe, and it can be fully executed by a nonpilot at the touch of a single button.

The company regards the two safety systems as complementary, so one isn’t a substitute for the other. Pilots and passengers, however, are certain to be a lot less reluctant to push the Safe Return button than pull the CAPS handle. One action is reversible and likely to end with a fully functional airplane on a hard-surface runway. The other, at best, is a wild ride that ends at an unknown location with an insurance claim.

Cirrus has done a remarkable job in the past decade of lowering its accident rate through factory training, promoting CAPS usage, and its pioneering Embark flight program for used aircraft buyers. Bringing Safe Return to the piston fleet puts a powerful safety tool in the hands of Cirrus pilots—many of whom have less flight training and experience than those operating turbine aircraft—and their passengers. It’s likely to make reluctant fliers less resistant to GA flying knowing that their airplane has the technology to land at the touch of a button. Safe Return also is sure to become an important differentiator in the marketplace in much the same way that CAPS has set Cirrus apart since the first SR20 was FAA certified in 1998.

Autoland capability also has major implications for aviation going forward. If and when Safe Return is shown to improve flight safety, automated landings could become a normal and accepted way for GA airplanes to approach and land, and hand-flown approaches and landings could be relegated to emergency and abnormal situations.

Taking things a step farther, automation could take on the coveted role of “pilot flying” while human pilots become monitors. That might not be OK with those of us who have invested years of effort in refining stick-and-rudder skills that may soon be obsolete—but it’s probably just fine with passengers.

Cirrus doesn’t have a patent on the Garmin autoland system or its components, so it remains to be seen whether other aircraft manufacturers will get the technology for their own piston airplanes or install it in legacy aircraft via supplemental type certificates (STCs). Cirrus also must decide whether to retrofit Safe Return to its own existing fleet.

Cirrus has more than 10,000 piston airplanes in the field—but retrofits are sure to require hardware upgrades, and it’s as yet unknown how costly and time-consuming those modifications would be. For now, however, Cirrus is fully committed to installing Safe Return on all its new production airplanes. The changeover has happened already on the SR production lines at the Cirrus assembly plant in Duluth, Minnesota, where every new G7+ gets Safe Return as standard equipment—not an option.

The G7+ (which also includes a GDL 60 for automatic database updates, a “smart” pitot heat probe that automatically activates in cold temperatures, and “runway occupancy awareness” that warns of other aircraft on a runway) adds about $70,000 to the price of an SR22T and roughly $40,000 to an SR20.

“We like to say that safety is standard at Cirrus,” McIver says. “We believe this technology will save lives and expand general aviation. There’s no way we’re turning back.”

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