Automatic Ground Collision Avoidance System Saves Pilot (heads up display footage)

Recently the Auto-GCAS system on a Arizona National Guard F-16 saved its pilot. The system kicked in at about FL8 (or at least started the 'FLYUP" warning and the aircraft dropped to about FL4 before it completed the pull up.

a reply to: FredT

I saw that video earlier and showed it to my girlfriend. Hell of a promotional video for Lockheed imo, sorry our planes just want to keep flying... cue the skynet

a reply to: FredT

That was awesome!

It made me think of what it might be like in a decade after AIs get really good.

AI 1. AI 2 this is AI 1. The climb rate is still too high. My softy passed out. How is yours? Over.
AI 2. She is still good just groaned a bit. Mine is a keeper. Trade yours in for a younger model.
AI 1. Yes, I will have to. Yours is a female. I might have to try one next.
AI 2. If you do, get a PMS detector. Those things are gold.
AI 1. Thank you for the advice, I will try one out.

P

a reply to: FredT

That's an awesome system. A lot of pilots and passangers would still be here if it were installed in all aircraft. Scary to hear the urgency in the voice of the flight lead.

Almost hit 700 knots in that dive.

Impressive system.

They're working on an Integrated system that will include air to air mode. The aircraft will have to carry an ACMI pod to transmit to each other currently, but as long as they have the pod, the system will recognize another aircraft, and move to avoid it.

a reply to: Zaphod58

I mean from what I saw the pilot was alerted over radio before the system kicked in.

But wow at that speed what did he have 8 more seconds? 10?

eesshh, that got my heart rate up..

Not sure why that gets me so bad, but I have a bad fear of crashing my plane into the ground while thinking I'm 10,000 feet up.. No idea maybe flight simulators or something, cause I've never flown a plane..

originally posted by: Reverbs
a reply to: Zaphod58

I mean from what I saw the pilot was alerted over radio before the system kicked in.

But wow at that speed what did he have 8 more seconds? 10?

eesshh, that got my heart rate up..

Not sure why that gets me so bad, but I have a bad fear of crashing my plane into the ground while thinking I'm 10,000 feet up.. No idea maybe flight simulators or something, cause I've never flown a plane..

less than 8 seconds easily. As I said above the airspeed indicator came just short of 700 knots before the recovery.

a reply to: Reverbs

The pilot was unconscious. What you heard was his instructor in the other aircraft trying to wake him up after he suffered GLOC during BFM.

a reply to: Zaphod58

ooohhh..


Now I see.


I wonder if it ever kicks in at the wrong time.. What if you want to dive randomly close to the ground for whatever reason, could your jet just override you? putting you back where you don't want to be?

Well that video got my heart pumping.Lucky pilot,awesome system.

a reply to: Reverbs

It can be programmed, so if you're flying low level, you can program it to only fly up if you descend below a certain altitude, similar to TFR.

Great video. Great find. He GLOCs at 8.3 gs and clearly just "let's go" of the stick, but nose down at AB or even MRT will accelerate fast. Interesting that the jet hit 9.1g on the pull out. I'm guessing he was still out for the pull out.

Oh, and the other thing to notice is that the recovery inputs were placed around 8000 feet, and the plane, at that speed has a large enough turn radius that he bottoms out at 4k. Looks like it was 700 knots/1.1 IMN, so it doesn't turn on a dime.

Again, Great post.

Out of shear interest what would be the resulting action if any? taken against the Pilot??. Grounded or what???..

I cannot imagine that they want people in the cockpit just blacking out without warning?.


RA

a reply to: slider1982

None. There are many reasons he could have blacked out. In this case he was a student which means he's probably still adapting to high G loads the F-16 is capable of in BFM.

a reply to: FredT

I am having a hard time figuring when the pilot started pulling up on his own. I read a quote of him saying he woke hearing his commander say recover a number of times while still at the controls was confused for one second and pulled up. This may not be true, but either way when did the pilot recover and take a tug?

I think maybe the auto system took him back to 9,000 and then he brought himself up from there? Or was it engaged only while it said fly up and 5000? I was not sure if the fly up was just the warning system or the auto system engaged as well? I don't know nearly as much as I wish I did on the subject.

a reply to: randomthoughts12

Auto-GCAS continuously compares a prediction of the aircraft’s trajectory against a terrain profile generated from onboard terrain elevation data. If the predicted trajectory touches the terrain profile, which is indicated at the 26 sec. mark on the video at the moment when the two chevrons on the HUD come together, the automatic recovery is executed by the Auto GCAS autopilot. The automatic recovery maneuver consists of an abrupt roll-to-upright and a nominal 5-G pull until terrain clearance is assured.

m.aviationweek.com...

The system pulls the nose up until the aircraft is clear of terrain, at which point the aircraft goes wings level and flies straight and level.

Yeah, I can't tell when he "wakes up" from the G-LOC episode. I thought at first it was when he goes right wing down at about 9k', but it doesn't sound like he responds to the "Knock it off"

The "Knock It Off" call is a term that anyone in the flight may initiate, but everyone in the flight MUST respond to. So the "Sully flight, Knock it off" would require a "Sully 1, knock it off" and "Sully 2, Knock it off"

I hear that but the breathing of this pilot is not interrupted when the comm's happen, so I don't know if there was an instructor or someone else in the cockpit. But after a GLOC episode, the flight is done, they're going home.

And like Zaph said, that's a lesson learned, not any kind of grounding. I can tell you that he was not employing the correct breathing technique for high-g maneuvering and that can contribute to these events.

a reply to: cosmania

Whoops. My bad. The article states that he woke up in the dive and pulled from 5 to 9g's to recover. Man, that's a hell of a way to wake up.

a reply to: cosmania

The instructor was in Sully 1. They were both flying C models.