How Auto pilot works

How Auto pilot works

I don't really isn't as auto as you might think there's no robot that sits in the pilots see and mashes buttons while the real pilot takes a nap.

 It's just a flight control system that allows a pilot to fly an airplane with out continuous hands on control basically it lets a pilot fly from New York to Los Angeles without weight not calling the controls for six straight hour But how does it actually work End of like a polar bear.

 Polar bears core temperature sits at about ninety eight point six degrees Fahrenheit it is so well insulated against the frigid.

Arctic cold it often over heats when that happens it's body reacts by releasing excess heat through its hairless part like it snows.

The polar bears body temperature returns to a comfortable ninety eight point six and it's free to hunt seals another day.

That's cycle is called a negative feedback loop and it's the same way in auto pilot functions A negative feedback loop is a self regulating system that reacts to feedback in a way that maintains equilibrium generally it uses a sensor to receive some sort of data or input and the system uses that data to keep functioning in a priest that way for the polar bear that preset is body temperature for an airplane it's lateral and vertical movement.
A modern automatic flight control system that's auto pilots full name is made up of three main parts a flight monitoring computer several high speed processor is in a series of sensors placed on different parts of the plane the sensors collect data from the entire plane and send them to the processors which in turn tell the computer what's what AFC **** come in three different levels of complexity there are single two and three axis auto pilots based on the number of ports they control single axis controls the ailerons which are these guys they make the plane do this Single axis auto pilot is also called the wing leveler because it controls the role of the plane and keeps the wings perpendicular to the ground to access handles everything the single access does along with the elevator is located here they knew the plane like this And three axis juggles those two plus the writer that one there is in charge of this movement then the computer tells the servo mechanism units what to do servos are the little instruments that actually move the parts all of these pieces come together to make sure your plane stays in the air where it belongs they don't just work on their own the success of the auto pilot depends on the knowledge of the actual human pilot.

All right Sir dumb and dutiful meaning this that if you program to make correctly they will kill you Dumb And dutiful are the two days of automation according to a winner a former U. S. Air Force pilot and aviation scholar.

You once described auto pilot as dumb in the sense that it will readily accept a logical input dutiful in the sense that the computer will attempt to fly whatever is put in it's crucial and I cannot emphasize this enough that you know how to fly a plane before you use an auto pilot step one is in putting a flight plan and step one is also where things could start going wrong to get from New York to LA a pilot needs a route.

That route translates to a flight plan and not play plan gets punched into the computer and logged into the database if the pilot doesn't know what the heck they're doing and they could end up programming the auto pilot to fly the plane upside down Or to spell out I'm a bad pilot This guy If they correctly navigate step one step two is simply turning on the auto pilot the system executes a flight plan and takes over from there.

 That will stay operational until such time as they tell it or turn it off but it is cable flying the aircraft to set you from take off all the way to touch down including touchdown.

 We can't just happened at nap at it's the ABC is the auto pilot Always be checking Because autopilots cannon do fail sometimes it's user error when entering the flight plan sometimes it's a sensor or server malfunction Either way.

This is when it becomes very important that an inflatable toy Isn't flying the plane That's not doing what I expect to do I'm gonna disengaged the autopilot money back to handling your say okay this is what I want you don't want to rebuild it again.

The good news is auto pilot will never take over a plane all I houseWorst case The pilot turns it off and on again or pulls a circuit breaker if that doesn't work and re programs it to behave itself.

Worst worst case the pilot just has to fly the plane themselves So I am a very large proponent of hand flying that airplane to keep your skills high because you know what you're gonna go through a check for at least once a year A check ride is a practical test regulated by the Federal Aviation Administration the U. S. pilots must pass to get their licenses and most airlines require yearly check rides to make sure their pilots can actually fly Because if it's on auto pilot time how can you keep your still sharp.

There's a reason we still have pilots flying planes and haven't handed the yoke over to robotsAs advanced as the technology is an auto pilot Is not Auto enough to think for itself which means it's not smart enough to fly a plane by itself And That's another thing auto pilots have in common with polar bears.