This afternoon included a wonderful flight with a guy from France who is working on his CFII-H (helicopter instrument instructor rating). First I would like to thank our government for driving down the value of the dollar to the point that East Coast Aero Club’s prices on the R44 are less than half what flight schools in Europe are charging. Second, I would like to thank Air Traffic Control for some entertainment during today’s flight. Boston Approach called a Cessna and asked “Are you familiar with Boston Class Bravo Airspace?” The pilot responded “Ummm, I think so.” The controller then noted “Well, you’re in it without a clearance. Suggest descending below 3000′.” [Class B airspace protects arrivals and departures at the nation’s busiest airports. Violating Class B airspace is a serious offense, but not likely to be pursued by the FAA in this case because the Cessna pilot was well clear of the airliners.]
My French student was a bit jet-lagged and “behind the aircraft” as they say in the world of fast airplanes. He failed to make a 90-degree turn on a GPS approach and Hanscom Tower called us just as I was asking roughly what heading we would expect to fly when on a Runway 23 approach. Instead of saying “Do you idiots realize that you’re heading for Logan Airport instead of Hanscom?”, the tower controller asked “N171WT… are you inbound to the airport at this time?” (an unusual call to an aircraft that has been cleared for an approach and accepted that clearance). I replied that we were learning how to find the airport.
Phil, on somewhat related note, as airtraffic expert, how far are we from fully automate flight?
What are the main challenges?
Obviously military droids do it, by flying under remote control, is this remote control still strictly necessary?
When do you expect fully automated including takeoffs and landings Atlantic crossings?
Looking forward to your comments.
Villem: I’m not an expert on air traffic control! I don’t think that we will have fully automated flights any time soon. The certification process for modern airplanes ensures that a human is required to deal with almost any failure. I think that it is far more likely that we’ll have mostly automated air traffic control, at least separation of enroute flights. Fuel is too expensive to be wasted, as it is right now, by putting airliners on roundabout routes for the convenience of controllers and their 1950s methods.