We are on the road to eliminating the pilot but this ain’t it. They keep pushing the complexity of flying an helicopter. Yeah, your first few hours you’re gonna suck but most people solo within 10 hrs. You’re not gonna save much money with this thing. There’s still a lot of non flying learning (aero, mech, wx, ATC, etc) involved.
Intuitive? Well I see a lot of people staring down at a iPad. I don’t have to look down at the controls while flying. What happens when it fails? Is it going to keep the aircraft within limits all the time? Meaning, will it know that the pilot is flying into a confined area outside its OGE capability? Will it allow the aircraft to land with a tailwind outside of its limits? Slopes? There are so many flight profiles where a pilot’s experience matters.
So they demonstrated an auto to the the ground to a taxiway. What does it do when the engine fails in a rural area? Does it automatically choose the best field for the conditions? If you have to take that auto to the trees, does it know when to flare and cushion? Because I can tell you, if it’s using a RADALT for those things, they work fine over flat terrain. However, over uneven terrain or over trees, that altitude on the RADALT will be bouncing all over the place. If it’s LiDAR, I still wouldn’t trust it.
The vids they show are very canned scenarios. Helicopter flying is far more dynamic than basic A to B flying. I’m sure it works great for runway to runway but what about the guy slinging Xmas trees? Or cherry drying? What about flying NOE? If I’m flying a rotor disk away from another aircraft in formation, what happens if my finger slips on the iPad? What if I need to bank sharply to avoid birds? If I swipe to an auto hover, does it know how to respond to dynamic roll over?
There are some operations where I’d trust hands on flying vs a finger on an iPad.
