This keeps coming up, so I am making a separate thread for it in the hope that discussion in this doesn’t get buried in other threads and maybe we can get clarification from Matt.
If you aren’t aware, Matt posted a video on his Instagram that stated he was landing a Q400 with autoland. Several people seem very happy about this, others not so much.
My questions:
Does any Q400 in real life have autoland?
If not, why is it going to be added to IF?
Someone stated that all new aircraft will have autoland. Does this mean it will be added even if not realistic?
As far as I am aware, no Q400 has autoland capability. They are only Cat III certified when equipped with a HGS (HUD).
If the devs are adding autoland because they think it should for some reason be a capability in the plane, then I am disappointed. It’s a cheating system that was a waste of time IMO in the first place to implement since it can only be used realistically rarely.
If the devs are adding autoland since they claimed that every plane will have autoland after the A320, then I am slightly more sympathetic since all of the people who can’t land will go nuts if they’re not promised their cheating system.
“[Rant on]” something I decided to add in myself. Only sympathy I have for Autoland is whilst landing in very tough crosswinds but if someone in FFS is using a Cessna 172 with Autoland, then there’s a problem.
I agree it would only make sense to add it to the Dash 8 as long as it has autoland it real life to keep some realism, but it’s still a nice feature for those who do not really care about realism because at the end of the day we don’t have to use it at all if we don’t want too.
The BBJ and A320 family on the other hand, I think it’s a great idea to have autoland on them. Although it may be a “cheating system” if it wasn’t added then people would complain to have it added, and although it’s rarely used IRL, it’s nice to have it as it keeps realism because the plane has autoland IRL.
By that logic, then the Cessna 172 will have spoilers and the 747 will have a fifth propeller sticking out from the top that is activated by the click of a button.
I agree, maybe it is a cheating system, but who said that you were forced to use it? If you don’t like it, don’t use it. Simple. I personally, use it when there is very very low visibility.
I rarely use autoland even in low vis (I prefer to just use the HUD in those cases), but am not opposed to it’s availability at any time on aircraft that actually have that capability in real life. However, it should not be an option on any aircraft that it is not an option on in real life.
For those that would like autoland on the Q400, do you also want it added to the C172, Super Decathlon and Spitfire?