Garmin announced today (March 4) the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has approved retrofit installations of the company’s Autoland and Autothrottle technology in “select” Garmin G1000 NXi-equipped Beechcraft King Air 200 turboprop twins. Introduced more than 50 years ago, the King Air 200 is a staple in the charter and corporate aviation market. Garmin anticipates additional approvals for other King Air models going forward.
The award-winning Autoland function enables anyone on board, including the pilot and passengers, one-button access to activate the technology in the event of pilot incapacitation or other emergency. The Autoland process automatically selects the nearest suitable airport for landing, navigates to the airport, coordinates with air traffic control, flies the appropriate approach, lands, and shuts down on the runway. Autoland also activates automatically if the system determines the pilot is unresponsive. The EASA approval marks the first twin-engine certification for Autoland in Europe, according to Garmin.
Garmin Autothrottle technology, as a retrofit on existing King Air 200s, is fully integrated with the G1000 NXi flight deck to provide automatic engine control from takeoff to landing, providing protection from throttle rollback, among other potential hazards. The automatic settings are based on manufacturer or user-configured climb, cruise and descent settings, including inlet turbine temperature (ITT) limits. The system protects against over-temperature and over-torque throttle conditions, taking flap and landing gear configuration into account. Garmin Autothrottle also detects an engine failure and sets the power lever of the failed engine to the appropriate condition while also adjusting the throttle of the working engine to appropriate settings to maintain the selected airspeed reference.
