The technology has been around since before World War II in military airplanes (see “How Can It Land Itself?” below) and from the mid-1960s in transport category jets. But if necessity is the mother of invention, then market demand is its directional guidance. When Garmin Aviation unveiled its Autoland emergency landing system in 2019, we saw the intersection of relatively inexpensive and precise GPS navigation, digital autopilots, and the FADEC-enabled turbine and turboprop powerplants capable of responding elegantly to an autothrottle.

Garmin debuted Autoland in the Piper M600/SLS—with an emergency-only autothrottle at first. Daher was first to certify a standalone Garmin autothrottle, in the TBM 940, followed by Cirrus in the SF50 Vision Jet, then the two OEMs added Autoland functionality in sequence in 2020. For the safety breakthrough, Garmin secured the Robert J. Collier Trophy—and FLYING’s 2021 Innovation Award.

In the case of Garmin’s Autoland, the fact that someone has yet to push the big red button spells a certain success. Or does it? Have you read of an accident in which the aircraft’s ability to land itself might have saved the day? And would you use the system if the situation warranted?

The Next Versions of Autoland

No one seems to mind that we haven’t seen Autoland used in anger yet. The applications just keep coming. Adding to new certs in the TBM 960 and Daher retrofits, the recently announced HondaJet Elite II program on its model HA-420, and the inclusion of the system on the upcoming Beechcraft Denali single-engine turboprop, Garmin has been working on its own supplemental type certificate for the Beechcraft King Air 200, to be followed by the 300 series—on an up-to-50-year-old design with many configurations.

For the King Air 200 series STC, you need a 200/B200 model—and several key components, including the Pratt & Whitney PT6A-42, -52, or -61 engines paired with four-blade props. Your King Air also requires hydraulic landing gear for Autoland. You’ll need the latest configuration Garmin G1000 NXi flight deck for either autothrottle alone or paired with Autoland. You can start with an analog panel or the basic G1000—you just have to get the updated NXi first.

• READ MORE: Elliott Aviation Delivers First Garmin Autoland Upgrade in King Air B200

Four years ago, I had a sneak peek of the very first installation at Olathe, Kansas, at New Century AirCenter (KIXD). On August 19, I climbed on board with Eric Sargent, engineer and flight-test pilot, into N60HL, which Piper had delegated to the project just a day before the company had to take it out of market survey for the final push to certification. I didn’t know what to expect—and we flew a slightly modified version of the protocol since the whole project remained under a cloak of secrecy at the time.

Still, I had to draw upon all my years of sitting there in the right seat watching students work out how to land without my touching the yoke, in order to keep my hands from grabbing for the horns as the M600 made a competent—if a bit solid—touchdown.

Going Flying—Hands Off

During that initial dance with Autoland, Jessica Koss, then aviation media relations specialist and now demo pilot for Garmin, led my introduction to the project. So it was only fitting that she would take the left seat in the King Air for the next demo I’d have—this time out of the Appleton Regional Airport (KATW) in Wisconsin during the week of EAA AirVenture in late July. Garmin announced the STC in progress the week prior, so our moves weren’t top secret this time, but it still felt like we would tap into talents on board the twin turboprop that the bigger iron we taxied past—a Falcon 900, a Citation Latitude—could only dream of having in the panel. With two rated pilots up front, midsize to long-range business jets don’t need “George the autopilot” to do any more than it already does, perhaps. But the King Air—so often flown single pilot—does.

This King Air B200—N288KM, Garmin’s workhorse test bed for new toys—had two critical building blocks installed to make the Autoland system work. First, it needed the upgrade to the G1000 NXi, the integrated flight deck now available by STC or as original OEM equipment in a multitude of light singles and twins. That STC for the King Air 200 series debuted in 2011—and across the King Air C90, 200/B200 and 300/350 series, Garmin estimates roughly 841 aircraft have had the STC installed, with 562 already equipped with the upgraded G1000 NXi.

Second, the King Air needed an autothrottle. While another autothrottle option exists for the model—the Innovative Solutions & Support installation, which debuted in 2019 and won FLYING’s Editors Choice Award that year—the Autoland suite requires the Garmin solution. That didn’t exist until recently, and it’s part of the package Garmin introduced at AirVenture. We would get to test both the autothrottle in its stand-alone modes and Autoland with the AT pulling the power levers, literally.

Before we launched, we’d had a briefing on the suite and the procedures. Around the table at the Appleton Flight Center—a hive aswarm with pilots to-ing and fro-ing during the show—Koss, Will Johnson (flight-test engineer), Aaron Newman (flight-test pilot), and Scott Frye (program manager) walked us through the architecture of the system and what to expect.

• WATCH: We Fly Garmin Autoland King Air 200

About That Autothrottle

We followed the plan to go through a takeoff using the autothrottle and climb above the bumps around 5,500 feet msl. The autothrottle itself brings significant safety benefits through its series of modes paired with the phase of flight. One key “pilot surprise” it prevents is throttle rollback when engaged—which has been blamed for several accidents over the course of the twin’s history. It also provides torque adjustment in the case of an over-temperature or overtorque condition.

Takeoff, climb, and descent/approach modes have standard settings or can be user-configurable.

But the phase of flight where the AT shines is if you lose power on one side. Then, it kicks into OEI (one-engine inoperative) mode and supports the pilot, working in parallel with the King Air’s native rudder boost. Autothrottle OEI is separate from rudder boost-triggered OEI ESP, and it is functionally equivalent to normal AT, except it parks the failed side throttle lever in its present position once the failure is detected.

About 20 nm out from KATW, Koss called Appleton Tower and by their prearranged agreement announced the request to initiate the Autoland sequence. As expected, the tower was able to accommodate the demo and told us to expect Runway 21. With the way clear, Koss had me engage the guarded, red-rimmed “Emergency Autoland” button—found in the King Air application on the lower console between the pilot and copilot seats. That keeps it within reach of both cockpit denizens but also the folks in the back.

From there on, Autoland took the reins, and frankly, it got pretty boring—if not still a bit surreal to watch the airplane fly itself. Keep in mind the King Air weighs almost twice as much as any other certificated application thus far—so much needed to be accounted for in the landing portion in terms of ensuring the stabilization of that mass prior to touchdown.

The screens turned to “calm-the-passengers” mode, and a series of gentle maneuvers linked us to the final approach course and a solid touchdown. I joked with Koss that she could surely land better than that—and it’s true. Autoland is not set up to caress the runway with the grace of a skilled—or lucky—pilot. It’s set to land firmly but safely, as if the runway were always slicked with a quarter-inch of rain.

A. The G1000 NXi installation comes first, bringing the latest software into the flight deck if not already installed.     

B. The autothrottle utilizes mechanical linkages as well as electrical components to set power for the phase of flight—or balance power between the engines.

C. Sensors and autopilot servos work behind the scenes to monitor flap and gear positions, and move flight control surfaces in response to Autoland requirements.

D. Garmin’s electronic stability and protection enters a new protocol during engine-out operations.

E. Autoland changes the displays to a passenger-centric presentation that walks the people on board through the steps of the approach and onto the landing.

How it Works

For those who didn’t read FLYING’s complete report in the January/February 2020 issue, or you want a review of what’s going on behind the scenes, here you go. The pieces of Autoland in the King Air B200 emulate those of the original installation—with a few more moving parts (and algorithms inside) to attend to the fact this is a turboprop twin we’re working with and not a single-engine turboprop or jet. In fact, the STC will mark the first certification of a two-engined aircraft, with the initial approval in the twin-engined HondaJet still in the works at press time.

First, there’s Garmin’s electronic stability and protection (ESP). The advanced aircraft recovery functionality has been built into Garmin flight decks since 2010. ESP works in the background when the pilot hand-flies the airplane. It’s independent of the autopilot but is activated using the AP’s servos. If the pilot exceeds a 45-degree bank, and ESP is active, then it will engage and nudge the flight controls to a more level attitude—and encourage the pilot to reduce the bank angle a bit. It works in a similar way with nose-up and nose-down pitch attitudes. If ESP activates for a prolonged period, the autopilot will engage in level mode.

The ESP takes on a new level in OEI management—what old school called “engine-out ops” or “single-engine ops.” Normally, the loss of power on one side triggers a bank excursion unless the pilot captures the change with appropriate rudder and aileron input—remember “dead foot, dead engine” and banking 5 degrees into the good powerplant? Well, upon the power loss, the ESP’s normal limits of 45 degrees change to 10 degrees into the failed engine and 40 degrees into the good engine, and pitch limits tighten from 20 degrees to 10 degrees pitch up and from 17 degrees to just 5 degrees nose down. Low airspeed protection kicks in at V_MCA plus 15 kias.

Second, there’s emergency descent management (EDM). EDM monitors pressurization and, in the event of a pressurization loss, maneuvers the airplane down to 15,000 feet msl or lower, unless the pilot responds.

Third, the autothrottle kicks in. The AT controls power typically by maintaining an airspeed, or a climb or descent rate, as selected by the pilot through the autopilot. In the case of Autoland, the AT continues to manage power during the descent, approach, and landing, based on target speeds, altitudes, and climb or descent rates, as called for by the system. For the King Air application, the autothrottle also balances power between the left and right engines, and monitors both to respond in the event of a power loss.

Fourth, sensors and “smart” autopilot servos work in the background. A barrage of specialized sensors monitor flap and gear positions, as well as braking sensors once the airplane is on the runway. The autopilot also features advanced servos with the functionality to be driven in very fine increments. This allows them to manage the precise vertical/descent rate and touchdown protocol required for a reasonably smooth landing.

Finally, there is a radar altimeter, already installed on the King Air. This advanced altimetry system uses the timing of radio waves to determine the airplane’s height above the ground with pinpoint accuracy. Initial testing of Autoland on previous singles attempted to manage altitude just by reference to the GPS—but the nuances of the roundout managing final feet above the runway required the precision of a radar altimeter to execute the landing properly. Perhaps future iterations of Autoland could use increasingly precise GPS for this component, but we’re not there yet.

So, back to the question posed as we sit here four years into a real, fielded automatic landing system for GA. We probably still need more time flying with the system ready in the background before we’ve contemplated all the ways it might save the day. And future versions are likely to assist us in abnormal situations rather than emergency ones—like using it to fly the airplane (without the ATC warnings) while we care for a sick passenger or upon entering weather we’re not prepared to exit properly.

One thing is for certain: Like a parachute, it’s a tool which, well deployed, can expand our reach as pilots—safely.

What’s it Going to Cost You?

Autothrottle: Starting at $44,995 (plus installation)

Autoland (assuming the G1000 NXi and autothrottle installed): Starting at $32,995 (plus installation)

Upgrading G1000 NXi to Phase II (to support AL/AT): $74,995 when purchased with the AT package

Upgrading the G1000 to the G1000 NXi: $52,995 (plus installation)

Adding G1000 NXi from scratch: $410,000 to $450,000 (depending on facility and options)

Labor estimates:
Autothrottle: 80 to 100 hours

Autoland: 200 to 240 hours

How Can it Land Itself?

With all the tech on the flight deck today, it’s no wonder that a modern airplane can perform a middling-to-decent landing on its own. But if asked when the first automated landing took place, you might be surprised to hear it: August 23, 1937.

That’s when Army Captain Carl Cranetested out his invention—an automatic landing system constructed of airborne receivers installed in a Fokker C-14B paired with a network of five radio beacons surrounding Patterson Field (now KFFO) near Dayton, Ohio.

Crane, director of the Instrument and Navigation Laboratory, and his fellow engineers put their minds to the proposal in 1935. First, in determining the system’s architecture, the group tested the electrical and mechanical components on aircraft in flight—much like a modern autopilot in cruise at first then through approach and landing. From a report filed following the successful attempt and reproduced on Fokker’s website, the process followed a similar structure to modern automatic landings:

First, a Sperry gyro pilot maintained the airplane’s directional control—which had been proven in long-distance flights from Ohio to Texas, New York, and Virginia. Regardless of the airplane’s actual heading when the pilot let go of the controls, the system captured a radio beacon signal from those transmitters that functioned much like marker beacons on an modern ILS.

Using the sensitive altimeter to fix the proper altitude, the airplane tracked inbound to the first of the string of stations, growing ever closer to the field.

For the first complete landing, Crane and engineers George Holloman and Raymond Stout took off from Wright Field (which was KDWF, near Riverside, Ohio, and now closed). As they leveled off and turned on the equipment, the Fokker traversed the roughly 5 sm over to the Patterson landing site.

The Fokker maintained altitude through a throttle “engine”—a rudimentary autothrottle interconnected with the altitude control to adjust the power setting if the minimum altitude was reached prior to Radio Station 1—the closest one to the field. After station passage, the throttle actuated again to set up a power-on glide and descent at a moderate rate until the touchdown was made at Patterson Field. At that point, switches on the landing gear actuated the throttle again, reducing power to idle. The landings were made in winds up to 11 mph and about half in “rough air.”

The C14B had certain advantages in making these trials a success. With a wingspan of 59 feet and a 525 hp Pratt & Whitney R-1690-5 Hornet radial engine, the C14B was relatively powerful when loaded to only half its normal payload—normal max gross weight was 7,341 pounds. Yet it was slow, stable, and ponderous enough in its handling to presume it would land predictably as well, mitigating tendencies to ground loop—which the report excerpt makes no note of, by the way.

Postwar Commercial Autoland

Development on an automatic landing system resumed following World War II, as the Royal Air Force formed its Blind Landing Experimental Unit (BLEU) at two military airfields in Suffolk, England—RAF Martlesham Heath and RAF Woodbridge. Using an increasingly more sophisticated autopilot to track the newly launched ILS for course and vertical guidance, rather than the beacons alone, introduced far more precision into the process. However, though the ILS’ lateral guidance could be used throughout the landing because of the way the transmitter is set up and emits, glideslope guidance ends once the airplane is over the runway threshold, leaving that last 10 feet up in the air, so to speak. Therefore, any autoland system had to begin ignoring the glideslope information once it became unreliable and transition to the radio altimeter.

From this basic truth comes the basis for the Category I instrument approach having a standard minimum altitude of 200 feet agl. Further reductions in those minimums, down to a full “zero-zero” landing, is classified as Category IIIc and requires not only the special onboard equipment and aircraft certification but also pilot training and qualification, and runway certification.

These early systems were tested on the military Vickers Varsity and Avro Vulcan, followed by the first installations on civilian aircraft, the Hawker Siddeley (originally de Havilland) HS.121 Trident, in cooperation with British European Airways. BEA had partnered with the RAF throughout the post-WWII development and made the first automatic landing in commercial revenue service on June 10, 1965, on G-ARPR, from Paris-Le Bourget (LFPB) to London Heathrow (EGLL). From there, the system was installed in the Sud Aviation Caravelle and throughout the turbojet fleets of other airlines.

The U.K. remained pioneers of sorts in utilizing automatic landing systems—driven by the poor weather and persistent low visibility experienced in the British Isles. North American airlines were relatively slow to pick up the new technology. In fact, when BEA went to scrap its Tridents and replace them with the Boeing 757, it was horrified to discover the 757 had no provision for the automatic landing system. While a dozen runways in the U.K. were certified to Cat. IIIc approaches then, only two were in the U.S., and the automatic landing system was deemed unnecessary for operations.

This feature first appeared in the October 2023/Issue 942 of FLYING’s print edition.

The post We Fly: Garmin Autoland for the Beechcraft King Air 200 appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

The Piper M600 at a Glance

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Ten years later, the newest evolution of the PA-46 series—Piper’s M600/SLS Halo—proposes to do both, delivering an envelope of protection readily managed by transitioning pilots while at the same time upping the ante in speed and payload. When the M600 update to the M500 first arrived on the scene in 2016, those dream numbers—the result of 100 more horsepower up front from a flat-rated PT6A-42A engine—really came true.

This year, with the FLYING Innovation Award-winning Autoland from Garmin giving the M600 its Halo, Piper’s quest for an ever-higher level of GA safety got a serious boost. The folks at Garmin will tell you Autoland couldn’t have come to fruition without Piper, and the feeling is mutual. “The M600 SLS and its Halo Safety System with Autoland is the result of an unwavering commitment to safety as well as the desire to evolve our products based on market input,” said Piper president and CEO John Calcagno. “This standard feature brings peace of mind to pilots and their families.”

Chasing the Grail

When FLYING first flew the initial M600 in market-survey mode five years ago—just hours before the FAA signoff on the type—we had a sense the PA-46 series had found its sweet spot, and the type has achieved great success. For the photo shoot for this article, we captured serial No. 173 in flight over the Atlantic Ocean, and I flew my demo flight in serial No. 163, currently in experimental mode, to test out several new goodies on board. Piper delivered 36 of the PA-46-600TP M600/SLS aircraft in 2020 and six in the first quarter of this year, to make a reported total of 161 out the door since its debut—with clearly more in the immediate pipeline.

Handling characteristics and performance make it comparable in some ways to half a Beechcraft King Air 200, according to pilots we talked with for this report. When Piper moved from the M500 to the M600, the extra 100 shp coaxed from the Pratt & Whitney PT6-series engines made all the difference in the world. In this case, they are the same 42s you find on King Air 200s from the early 2000s, but on the King Airs, they’re rated at 850 shp per side, while the M600 offers 600 shp. In the air, the M600′s wing makes it respond like the larger airplane, and the climb rate as high as 3,000 fpm stacks up well against the turboprop twin as well. Add in a range while carrying five passengers with light bags (a total of 1,000 pounds) of up to 800 nm—and the fact that it sips half the gas—this makes the M600/SLS a compelling choice for owners who fit that use case.

A Protective Halo

The Halo-equipped M600/SLS debuted with Garmin’s Autoland as the premier feature in the model’s standard lineup beginning in 2020. But the well-rounded roster of capabilities that Autoland and its accompanying avionics, known collectively as Autonomi, pack onto the turboprop make it just part of an overall “safety system,” as Piper calls it.

To recap, in case you aren’t familiar with Autoland: The orchestrated suite of software and hardware directs the airplane to the nearest suitable airport in the event of pilot incapacitation. It does so by controlling the aircraft’s navigation, descent, weather and terrain avoidance, gear extension, flight-into-known-icing activation, flaps, braking, and all communication with ATC. While it’s designed for passengers to initiate with a guarded button on the panel, the pilot can start the sequence via that same button, or the airplane can initiate Autoland itself if the pilot is unresponsive in certain cases.

Hypoxia recognition incorporated into the emergency descent mode takes it one step further, monitoring the pilot any time they engage the autopilot above 14,000 feet msl. If the pilot is unresponsive to the system’s prompts, EDM will bring the airplane below 14,000 feet. After that descent, the system will initiate the Autoland sequence if no further response comes from the pilot after a set period of time.

Halo also includes Garmin’s electronic stability and protection, synthetic vision, SafeTaxi, TerminalTraffic (which syncs with ADS-B-equipped aircraft and ground vehicles), SurfaceWatch (directing you to the runway before takeoff and to the ramp after landing), Flight Stream 510 to create a Bluetooth connection between the aircraft and your mobile device, and an autothrottle system.

I flew the model Piper currently has in experimental/market-survey status, N163HL, specifically so I could test out the latest update to the Garmin autothrottle that was originally incorporated into the M600 for Autoland. With the upcoming approval, the pilot can use the autothrottle outside of the Autoland sequence. And as tested, the A/T certainly does its part to assist the pilot—but more on that a bit later.

Preflight to Approach

Both models observed for this report feature the optional five-blade Hartzell composite propeller, approved in spring 2017, which—other than looking completely badass on the ramp—delivers an improved vibration signature inside the airplane, as well as likely better takeoff and climb performance, though no concrete numbers have been established by Piper. The steel-shank core is wrapped in carbon composite material and trimmed with a nickel-cobalt leading edge with a mesh erosion screen to protect the blades from foreign-object debris. That’s important because a single nick on the blade renders it unairworthy. As we noted on my preflight walk-around with Piper Aircraft business development director Dan Lewis, a stray drop of rain clinging to the leading edge can look an awful lot like a chip out of that blade. We were both relieved when it wiped off. That said, the propeller carries a lifetime guarantee, the result of a blade strength between five and 10 times that of blades with wood cores. Continuing on the walk-around, a hidey-hole-size compartment under a circular access panel near the horizontal stab can retain towels, testers and other cleaning accoutrements.

The fuselage could do with a few more inches in the cross section—a common refrain from those who will need to sit knee-to-knee with their fellow passengers in the back. I’m a not a large human, but it still took nimble maneuvering to drop myself into the left seat. Once settled into the flight deck, though, the M600 feels like a real front office, with a well-thought-out panel, easy-to-reach circuit breakers, and electrical-system controls on the overhead immediately in front of the pilot.

While taxiing, the rudder pedals remain a bit stiff, but the flight controls improve greatly in feel once you’re airborne. In fact, the relatively moderate pitch force in comparison to the slightly heavier aileron response reminded me of being in a stretched Bonanza with a longer wing. The same nose-heavy profile on landing will also echo that of a front-loaded A36, especially with two or three people placed towrds the front, and light baggage.

My introduction to the stand-alone autothrottle began in its takeoff setting, which comes on line as the powerplant reaches 700 pounds of torque. It felt like we were just getting started down the runway when the autothrottle captured the lever under my guiding hand. I continued steering, but the autothrottle set the Pratt & Whitney out front to the most efficient takeoff power setting and held it there as I came through 85 knots and rotated.

The climb from nearly sea level to 14,500 feet—above the lifting condensation level, its commensurate clouds and bumps, and general coastal fray—zoomed along at a variable rate between 2,500 and 3,000 fpm, with the total climb completed in less than six minutes on the G3000′s clock. With a couple of clearing turns in the last part of the climb, I agreed with the prior assessment that the airplane’s coupling is not unlike that of its larger brethren.

At 14,500 feet, I disconnected the A/T, which had held us at the maximum efficient torque setting throughout the climb, and Lewis walked through the M600′s protective features that predated the Halo version: electronic stability and protection and underspeed protection. Added since we previously flew the M600 in 2016 is overspeed protection, an addition to the emergency-descent-management protocol first installed with the G3000 in the model that year. During the overspeed-protection sequence, I watched and listened as the airspeed approached the top end, and when it rolled past 248 knots, a voice announced, “Autothrottle,”—which was already engaged from the takeoff and climb—and the power lever moved as the system adjusted the torque to a lower setting to keep us from blasting through the invisible speed wall.

With all of the envelope protection baked into the M600, it’s important to note the ability to override all of it in the event an evasive maneuver is required. That tough wing is responsible in part for a green arc (73 kias to 251 kias) on the tape that goes all the way up to the barber pole at 251 kias, the VNO.

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That said, it almost felt like a setup when things played out as they did when we headed back toward the airport. Upon descending down to 4,000 feet to duck below a scattered cumulus layer and line up for an approach into Vero, Lewis called out, “Skydiver!” and gestured out to the front of the airplane. Sure enough, there was a canopy at 12 o’clock and well inside our traffic bubble. I hit a 30-degree bank left to avoid the person hanging in the straps, only to see another canopy come through my field of view. I banked harder and pressed the autopilot-disengage button on the yoke to release the ESP, which would have resisted my momentary bank past 45 degrees to steer clear of the skydiver.

“The autothrottle will catch you a little faster than the system [alone] will,” says product marketing manager Bryant Elliott. “It will start increasing power before that underspeed kicks in. So, if the autothrottle is not engaged, the airspeed at which the underspeed is captured will be a bit lower.” The upshot? The enhanced aircraft flight-control system, launched with the M500 and M350 in 2015, now has another layer of protection.

When you look at what Garmin has been working on all along, they just needed a way to tie all the systems together to create Autoland. The Garmin GFC 700 has been able to fly an approach all the way to the ground the whole time; it just needed a way to extend the gear and flaps and flare and brake correctly.

Angels in the Panel

Up front, you can configure the screens to display any way you want—except maybe the latest Netflix movie—including full-screen PFDs on the left and right with traffic and map insets, as well as a split screen on all three displays featuring large-scale versions of pages such as weather, terrain or the engine-indication system. The big screens are driven by a pair of GTN 850s positioned side by side vertically on the center console above the power quadrant.

The daily summer thunderstorms had yet to kick up along the Treasure Coast during our demo flight, so we couldn’t find much to scope on the onboard radar. The M600 included the standard Garmin GWX 75 with an optional enhancement package—this option is now the newly rebranded Garmin GWX 8000 (previously the GWX 80). When the M600 debuted, its clean-sheet wing streamlined the radar pod into the leading edge of the right wing, improving ground clearance and allowing for a wider gear stance by a couple of inches on each side. The result of the change to the main gear is improved crosswind handling, with a demonstrated limit of 17 knots. “Ground clearance was not really an issue—it was getting the radar away from the fuselage,” Elliott said. The false feedback from the propeller went away with the change.

The GWX 8000 brings large-aircraft radar capability to the owner-flown market. Primary among its features is StormOptix. As Elliott noted: “Piper has offered the ground-clutter suppression and turbulence detection since the launch of the GWX 75, but the additional Auto Mode and volumetric scanning are unique to the GWX 8000. Also, the volumetric scanning provides advanced ground-clutter suppression and advanced turbulence detection, as well as zero blind range,” which means that returns are maintained in the system’s memory, enabling them to be presented on the screen until they are essentially zero nautical miles away.

Placing the GWX 8000 into auto mode activates the three-dimensional volumetric scanning with automatic adjustment of the antenna sweep to create a picture of the scanned volume. Those of us who recall single-color onboard radar (often a ghostly green) will be blown away by the 16-color palette available on the new display. Because of the diameter of the antenna, the wind-shear option is not available in the M600—but other enhancements, such as predictive hail and lightning, will be available with future software loads.

Backup instrumentation is now provided by the Garmin GI 275 integrated flight display, with its smaller, round-dial presentation, taking the place of the Aspen Avionics Evolution PFD.

One area where the M600 shines is in operational cost: That figure runs roughly $750 per hour according to the Aircraft Cost Calculator. How does this compare to other single-engine turboprops in the lineup? Though steep in comparison to piston-powered, high-performance singles, it ranks well among its peers in the single-engine-turboprop class, with the M600 besting the Daher TBM 940 and Pilatus PC-12 NG by nearly $200 per hour—and about $50 less per hour than the Epic E1000. Granted, with each of those competitors, you gain carrying capability and speed in varying amounts.

The new black-and-silver paint schemes manage to look both cool on the ramp and hot in the air. Interiors have had an update as well, with the EXP package now standard in the M600/SLS. But it’s more than an illusion of comfort and protection that the cabin environment provides. With the FLYING Innovation Award-winning Halo quietly standing by, the pilot now has the ability to give their passengers a true safety net of their own.

Piper M600/SLS Halo Statistics

The Right Training

An accident claimed a Piper M600—but fortunately not its pilot—in a runway-excursion event earlier this year. The preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board points to the pilot’s low time in type. Interviews with the broker who sold him the airplane indicate that the pilot’s low total time and laissez-faire approach to the type-specific training offered by Piper may have contributed to the airframe’s demise.

Piper offers a five-day transition course to the M600 through its partner, Legacy Flight Training at Vero Beach and Scottsdale, Arizona. And though the training in type is important, it’s also worth noting that the PA-46 series puts pilots into the midlevels (between FL 160 and FL 300) often for the first time. This means flying a fast, pressurized aircraft above some of the weather, but not all. It means exposure to high-altitude flying above FL 250—and getting the requisite training if you go there. It means more exposure to in-flight icing. These conditions are all straightforward enough to handle while everything is going well, but once a chain of events links up, experience up here can be a swift and harsh teacher. In the nonturbine PA-46s, flight in the midlevels required precise engine management, somewhat ameliorated by the altitude-happy PT6A.

This story appeared in the September 2021 issue of FLYING Magazine

The post We Fly: Piper M600/SLS Halo appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

The intelligence was there: in the form of electronic stability protection (ESP) to level the airplane, overspeed and underspeed protection, automated emergency-descent management, GPS navigational guidance and approaches that take you to the pavement, and weather, traffic and terrain input to analyze where to go and how best to get there. The brains only needed the “muscle” to make an autoland system happen—managing the throttle or power lever, extending the flaps and gear, executing a proper round-out, and braking to a safe stop on the runway.

We honor the foresight and decade of effort invested by the team at Garmin Aviation, as well as those significant contributions of their OEM partners—Piper Aircraft, Daher, and Cirrus Aircraft—to bring an automated landing within reach of general aviation pilots and passengers. With more than a thousand test landings completed during its run-up to certification, we’re still waiting for that first use of the silent button that will save a life. It’s a privilege to give the 2021 Flying Innovation Award for this incredible leap forward in GA safety to Garmin Aviation.

We also commend our 2021 Flying Editors Choice Award winners: Innovative Solutions & Support with Pilatus Aircraft and Textron Aviation, for the ThrustSense autothrottle in the Pilatus PC-12 and the Beechcraft King Air 360; and SpaceX and NASA, for the successful Crewed Dragon Module that carried astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken to the International Space Station in 2020.

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