Air travel: Autopilot's capabilities, limitations and future

Sydney Morning Herald

21-05-2025

We all know the moment when dinner party or barbecue conversation drifts into discussions of what everyone does for a living, and there is always one question we know we will get about our jobs. For an airline pilot, that one question is almost always 'doesn't the autopilot do everything for you?'
The response is generally 'well, not really …' before a proper explanation makes way for the questioner talking about that last time an airline lost their bags, and the moment is lost.
Let's explore the autopilot myth.
The autopilot, as depicted in 1980 comedy classic Flying High (AKA Airplane!), was not particularly accurate.
The first iteration of an autopilot was in 1914, only nine years after brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright took to the skies for the first time. The initial objective was to reduce the workload on the pilot, managing the pilot's fatigue, so all tasks associated with flying the aircraft could be safely carried out.
That objective has never changed, but of course, as aircraft have become more complex, so too have autopilot systems. Today, they can land the aeroplane if needed. So how do the real-life pilots put their automated selves to use?
With the technology still limited, pilots manually conduct the take-off manoeuvre. They use their feet on the rudder pedals to steer the aircraft on the runway centreline and when take-off speed is achieved (about 270-310km/h), the pilot pulls back on the control column or sidestick to make the aircraft fly. The rate of rotation is important to avoid the plane's tail striking the ground. On many take-offs, the ground clearance of the tail is a tiny 30-40 centimetres, so in gusty conditions the pilot needs all the manual finesse they have trained for to ensure a safe departure.
Pilots still manually perform take-offs. Credit: iStock
Once the aircraft has passed an altitude of 400-500 feet, the autopilot can be engaged. Pilots will assess the conditions first because, on a beautiful day, there is nothing better than 'having a fly' up to about 10,000 feet before turning the autopilot on. Equally, if the weather is poor, the pilot may decide to engage the autopilot within a minute of take-off to allow them to better manage the increased workload needed to keep their passengers safe.
In most jet transport in Australian skies, the autopilot system allows the pilots to not have to physically fly, but all pilots must have a healthy suspicion of automation. It is the responsibility of the pilot to constantly monitor the performance of the autopilot and to take manual control if it isn't doing what is wanted or expected. This happens often enough for complacency to never set in.