Cirrus Brings Safe Return Autoland to the SR G7+ Piston

The first application for Garmin’s Emergency Autoland on a piston-powered airplane, Cirrus announced today that the FAA-certified Safe Return with autothrottle will be standard on the SR G7+ series models.

The first application for Garmin’s Emergency Autoland was nearly six years ago and until now has been limited to turbine-powered aircraft. With a single push of a button, Safe Return takes control of the aircraft, controls the engine including mixture and throttle inputs, communicates with air traffic control, navigates to the nearest suitable airport while avoiding terrain and adverse weather, conducts a precision GPS approach, autonomously lands the aircraft bringing it to a complete stop, shuts down the engine and stops the propeller so that passengers can exit the aircraft safely.

As it is in the Cirrus SF50 Vision Jet, Safe Return in the SR series can be activated both manually and automatically. Anyone in the cabin can activate Safe Return Emergency Autoland by pressing the activation button in the cabin’s overhead panel. If a pilot is alone or those in the cabin are unable to activate it manually, the system is smart enough to activate automatically if determines that the pilot is flying erratically or is unresponsive. Safe Return can be disconnected by pressing the autopilot disconnect button at any time the pilot decides to abort the automatic landing.

Safe Return works with a servo-controlled emergency autothrottle (it isn’t a full-up autothrottle that’s embedded in the flight management system) and automatic mixture control. These servos maintain airspeed and engine control during a Safe Return activation, while automatic braking brings the aircraft to a full stop before a full engine shutdown with automated instructions to passengers on the cockpit displays and in the audio system. 

The G7+ also has a variety of other safety-enhancing systems including Runway Occupancy Awareness. It uses ADS-B traffic data to predict and alert the pilot of potential runwayincursions from approaching aircraft or other aircraft on the runway. With runway incursions at the top of the safety discussion of late, visual and aural alerts are provided on the pilot’s primary flight display and the Garmin 3D SafeTaxi map—a utility that’s useful at busy airports.

There’s also Smart Pitot Heat (the pitot heat switch has been removed altogether from the switch panel), which performs a self-test before every flight and automatically turns the heat on or off in flight depending on outside air temperatures.

Additionally, the G7+ includes the latest version of Cirrus IQ Pro, with automatic database via Wi-Fi or LTE. There is also a maintenance utility, plus flight data recording that grades the pilot’s approach and landing performance. Visit www.cirrusaircraft.com