Submitted by QuantumHamster t3_122rtof in explainlikeimfive
Gnonthgol t1_jdrkums wrote
There are several video tutorials out there, a lot of them are aimed at simulator games but are accurate enough. To start with you do not have to use the automation at all. You can fly the airplane using the hand controls just like a hundred years ago. This is usually done at least twice during each flight but not for long. The basic autopilot are made of three different systems, one to keep the heading to a set heading, one to keep the altitude at a set altitude and one to keep the speed at a set speed. This is more like your cruise control and lane guide on a car. On modern airliners these controls are mounted on the glare shield above the dashboard right under the windshield. The heading autopilot is also able to take input from the radio which listens out for radio beacons or from the GPS. So the pilot can tell the autopilot to fly to a place on the map at a set altitude and speed and the autopilot will fly there directly. It can even make an approach on a runway using the instrument landing systems mounted on the runway. The most advanced piece fitted to these airliners is the flight management system. This is similar to a navigation unit on your car. You can program the FMS with multiple waypoints or it can calculate those itself. When you get close to one waypoint the FMS will reprogram the autopilot to fly to the next waypoint. So in theory with an FMS the airplane can fly the entire flight itself.
However there are still lots of things for pilots to do. Airliners are not fitted with systems to automatically taxi the airplane on the ground or take off. There are usually systems to automatically land but these are not as good as humans. In addition there are lots of things like lights, flaps, gears, etc. which is not controlled by the autopilot. So for each step of the flight you need to go through the checklist and set up the airplane manually. And there are also tons of systems to keep a track of and monitor in the air. There are a lot of alarms alerting the pilots when things are wrong but it does not catch all the various conditions and even when an alarm sounds the airplane will not be able to automatically find out why the sensors read what they do and what should be done about it. So you need to constantly monitor the airplane and make sure it is safe at all times, and be ready to handle any unexpected conditions.
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