Looked it up and an Autoland system costs approximately $33,000 installed. Cirrus aircraft have a parachute and replacing one of them is between $18-30,000 depending on the size of the aircraft.
Autoland is an automatic system but is dependent on making it to an airport. If your engine quits that may not always be possible. You have to manually activate a Cirrus parachute but you have much greater flexibility on where you can land as any farm field or even large parking lot will do.
The pilot was unconscious. They wouldn't he able to use a parachute or make it to an airport.
If an engine went out, the Garmin might still have a better shot at crash landing than an unconscious pilot. Maybe it could be trained to do emergency procedures. Or maybe it's a lost cause at that point. (I'm not a pilot.)
Looked it up and an Autoland system costs approximately $33,000 installed. Cirrus aircraft have a parachute and replacing one of them is between $18-30,000 depending on the size of the aircraft.
Autoland is an automatic system but is dependent on making it to an airport. If your engine quits that may not always be possible. You have to manually activate a Cirrus parachute but you have much greater flexibility on where you can land as any farm field or even large parking lot will do.
The pilot was unconscious. They wouldn't he able to use a parachute or make it to an airport.
If an engine went out, the Garmin might still have a better shot at crash landing than an unconscious pilot. Maybe it could be trained to do emergency procedures. Or maybe it's a lost cause at that point. (I'm not a pilot.)
Discussion (273 points, 2 days ago, 178 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46346214