Landing is fully automated on passanger aircrafts?

Question

Last time we were flying with colleagues we had a disagreement: they all said that landing of the airplane (Boeings and Airbuses) is fully automated.

But I remember once reading that the very end of landing is manually finished by the pilot, because it is too complex to automate it.

Does someone can confirm (would be nice if a pilot) who is controlling the airplane during the landing?

Thanks

Answer 1

Some aircraft can do Cat III auto lands which will allow the aircraft to fly the aircraft onto the runway (depending on the catagory).

That being said, even if that is an option most pilots (ceilings and visibility permitting) will still hand fly the aircraft to the ground.  

On many commercial aircraft which are only certified for Cat I approaches, the lowest they could go would be 200ft and 1/2sm.  From my experience, usually once established on final and by about 1000ft AGL (above ground level) most crews seem to hand fly the aircraft.

Answer 2

I had the opertunity to ride the observers seat on a flight into Sao Palo some time ago.  I sat there and watched the aircraft fly its self right to the runway.  The pilot took over when the wheels were on the ground and taxied us top the gate.

Answer 3

The autoland systems of today do a better job than us mammals. I keep thinking about what the cockpit of the future will look like. A human "captain" sitting in the left seat. A big dog sitting in the right seat. The captain's job is to feed the dog. The dog's job is to bite the captain if he touches anything. Keep in mind, 85% of all aircraft accidents involve pilot error. Remove the pilot, remove 85% of problems that cause accidents. We'll get there someday. Glad I got my forty years in flying when I did.

Answer 4

We rarely use auto pilot since it is not very advanced

Every 150 flying hours we use the system

If the runway is very broad and completely clear auto pilot will not hurt

This website may help in the future: http://www.aviationearth.com/

Answer 5

It is very much a pilot. Automatic landing sequences may be added on to Boeing Y1 and Boeing Y3 which are part of Boeing's Yellowstone Project to compete w/ Airbus a380.

Answer 6

Under normal  circumstances Autoland isn't used. the pilots would rather take a grab of the controls and land her themselves. however the system does need to stay certified and the Autoland is a very Complex system on the Modern Boeings in order to run a CAT III autoland (that's Autoland plus Rollout, so the airplane lands and holds centerline)

there must be 3 IRS's in Agreement with one another

2 ILS Radios in agreement with eachother

both Course settings must be the same

System Integrity must be good

if any of these items aren't met the Autoland will downgrade itself and notify the Pilots that the CAT III is unavailable at witch point it goes to CAT II. if the systems arent doing well enough to do a CAT II then the airplane brings up an Indication "NO Autoland" and the pilots must handfly the landing, there's a lot of problems likely if you Can't perform an autoland, or some equipment is missing.

Answer 7

most of the time we disconnect the autopilot and land it manually due to a number of factors but modern aircraft are fully capable of landing automatically and actually have to do it at least once in 28days to keep the aircraft autoland current.