@Astro14, Just questions here. Do they have FLIR type systems and SAR combined ? Its too bad things like this can't be way more affordable, so many lives could be saved especially with the small planes and helicopters. If I was to fly again I'd want the CAS/ TAS, altitude encoding transponder etc etc. I've watched too many of those air disaster shows.
So is synthetic vision not as good because it is GPS based?
What is the latest and greatest system now?
We completely agree about small airplanes and helicopters- Kobe Bryant comes to mind.
My understanding of synthetic vision is that they still have landing minimum, at which point you have to be able to perceive the runway.
And while FLIR is great, I used to have one on the Tomcat, and I used to have one in the Hornet, but they cannot see through fog and clouds very well. It turns out that moisture in the atmosphere is a really good IR attenuator.
So, with a synthetic aperture radar, and a forward-looking infrared, installed, both of which on an airliner are gonna cost millions of dollars to do and get certified, it still doesn’t get you to zero visibility.
The real gain is on light, aircraft and helicopters, if the synthetic vision is based off of GPS signals, which are relatively available, instead of expensive complex and sophisticated new systems, then there’s really some room for improvement there.
But airliners as they are right now, are remarkably good. My landing minima for cat three is 300 feet RVR with no ceiling. Frankly, it’s hard to drive in those conditions, much less fly an airplane. Wayne mentioned landing a simulator and 300 RVR, and it bears repeating.
At the moment that the main wheels touchdown, you can’t see anything from the ccockpit, and by anything I mean even the runway in front of you. You are still in the fog because you are 35 to 40 feet in the air. as the airplane derotates, and the nose gear comes down to the runway, then you can just see a little bit of runway in front of you, but at roughly 120 or so knots, 300 feet visibility is half a second in front of you, you are no condition to taxi the airplane. So, you let the auto brakes stop the airplane while the auto pilot tracks centerline.
Then, when you’re down to about 15 kn, you very carefully exit the runway at your preplanned point and make darn sure that you are where you think you are. It is not easy.
So, all that to say that I just don’t see the return on investment when it comes to airliners. The systems that we’ve developed and installed actually work really well.
Depending on the cost of installation, there may be some great safety gains for small airplanes. Even then, though, you still need to be instrument rated.
Further, the majority of crashes, including Kobe‘s, helicopter crash, are because of visual-only pilot flew into instrument conditions, and I’m not sure synthetic vision is going to help in that situation. It might, but I worry about someone being overconfident, because now they have synthetic vision, and they need not follow the rules of VFR.
JFK Jr. Comes to mind in flying into instrument conditions while technically still VFR…