Readers of this blog will have noticed that I’ve always got my panties in a twist regarding how dumb human-scale helicopters are compared to $500 DJI drones. A bit of untwisting from Garmin:
Garmin today announced that the GFC™ 600H flight control system has received Supplemental Type Certificate (STC) approval for installation on the Bell 505 helicopter, … The GFC 600H provides a number of helicopter-tailored safety features, including attitude hold with speed stability, the innovative hover assist mode, Garmin Helicopter Electronic Stability and Protection (H-ESP™), dedicated return-to-level (LVL) mode, as well as overspeed and low-speed protection, and more.
… automatic altitude leveling airspeed and low G protection.
Thanks to the innovative hover assist mode, the system can also automatically detect a hover condition and allows for flight control inputs to help maintain position over the ground. In addition, when equipped with the optional yaw axis control, the GFC 600H can hold heading in hover.
In other words, with this system installed an airplane pilot can hover a helicopter without any training!
Related:
Too bad their press release has no mention of a “settling warning” feature you’ve advocated for.
Just $80,000 in last year’s money. Wonder how many years until it’s certified in a Greenspun-44.
But even better: You can get it on an Astar!
Would it have saved Kobe Bryant?
FAA is absolutely the,worst thing which happened to the aviation. The incredible amount of bureaucracy needed to appove anything attached to an aircraft pretty much killed the innovation for the last 50 years. Oh, and to add insult to injury it turns out that FAA outsources their safety “enforcement” to big a/c manufacturers.