I live in the US, but my VoIP provider is based in Canada. (So is the phone number.) Silly... no matter what, there's always a way around this for anyone that's the least bit determined.
I use the autopilot all the time for VFR flight.. the autopilot has nothing to do with traffic seperation. It is much easier to let the autopilot fly the plane and tell it what to do rather than do everything myself. I don't believe it's unsafe at all; in fact I believe it's safer.
Try flying a single-pilot piston-powered twin engine aircraft (complicated compared to jet power) in a busy area... there are a lot of things to do. Having an autopilot reduces this workload significantly.
My guess is that you're referring to a complete hands off 'go-here' flight.. which is unsafe in VFR and IFR flight. The pilot needs to make safe autopilot corrections regardless of whether it's his decision to avoid a dangerous situation or ATC's advice.
I'm an automation systems engineer. I always find the failure of systems such as this very interesting. I've done firefighting operations on many jobs where they were on their way down the toilet. Most of the time failures are caused by only one weak area in a project.. usually it's mechanical design problems, or software (logic) problems. I have seen an instance once where it was a union sabotage problem. It was interesting how that particular line would run perfectly well on it's own during the weekends; but during the week it was a disaster.
Since I spend most of my time writing automation logic and robot programs, I tend to get stuck with developing software workarounds for bad mechanical designs. The worst that I recall was a tread booker for a tire plant. It was one of the most crude machines I've ever worked on. My favourite part was a coupling that tended to slip; I was asked to put code in that 're-homed' the servo axis every few minutes automatically. I was paid by the hour; I'll software patch the hell out of bad mechanics if you want!
I'm not sure what the problem(s) "really" were in this instance, but it's kind of sad; what airport will be brave enough to try it again?
Slashdot Mirror
I live in the US, but my VoIP provider is based in Canada. (So is the phone number.) Silly... no matter what, there's always a way around this for anyone that's the least bit determined.
Just think, if they were only solar powered...
I use the autopilot all the time for VFR flight.. the autopilot has nothing to do with traffic seperation. It is much easier to let the autopilot fly the plane and tell it what to do rather than do everything myself. I don't believe it's unsafe at all; in fact I believe it's safer. Try flying a single-pilot piston-powered twin engine aircraft (complicated compared to jet power) in a busy area... there are a lot of things to do. Having an autopilot reduces this workload significantly. My guess is that you're referring to a complete hands off 'go-here' flight.. which is unsafe in VFR and IFR flight. The pilot needs to make safe autopilot corrections regardless of whether it's his decision to avoid a dangerous situation or ATC's advice.
I'm an automation systems engineer. I always find the failure of systems such as this very interesting. I've done firefighting operations on many jobs where they were on their way down the toilet. Most of the time failures are caused by only one weak area in a project.. usually it's mechanical design problems, or software (logic) problems. I have seen an instance once where it was a union sabotage problem. It was interesting how that particular line would run perfectly well on it's own during the weekends; but during the week it was a disaster. Since I spend most of my time writing automation logic and robot programs, I tend to get stuck with developing software workarounds for bad mechanical designs. The worst that I recall was a tread booker for a tire plant. It was one of the most crude machines I've ever worked on. My favourite part was a coupling that tended to slip; I was asked to put code in that 're-homed' the servo axis every few minutes automatically. I was paid by the hour; I'll software patch the hell out of bad mechanics if you want! I'm not sure what the problem(s) "really" were in this instance, but it's kind of sad; what airport will be brave enough to try it again?
This would be a good place to test that ARP poisoning tool I just installed.
If I could add the VAG-COM VW diagnostics, this would be very valuable to me.. a great supplement to the often illuminated CEL (Check engine light.)