Well, now we know which manufacturer will bring Garmin’s Autoland to piston airplanes.
The spark that propels innovation brought Cirrus Aircraft to life—and the company has become a catalyst to change the way people engage with the world around them and explore it on their own terms through the 25 years of its SR Series aircraft.
With a relentless desire to elevate quality and comfort within a total safety envelope, Cirrus leveraged its deep bench of precision engineering and legacy of craftmanship to create the highest expression yet of the game-changing Cirrus SR Series, the G7+, which it debuted on May 6.
For Cirrus, the generational progress encapsulated in the G7+ takes safety, style, ergonomics, connectivity, and convenience to the next level, into an airplane that is truly transporting—with updates to answer some of our biggest desires as pilots:
To make the most of our time and opportunities.
To offer a way to bring our families and loved ones together, in magical places.
To get where we’re going wrapped in an environment that rivals the finest luxury autos.
The G7+ adds to the full palette of pilot tools that Cirrus pilots have enjoyed, including the Cirrus IQ PRO app and Collier award winning Cirrus Airframe Parachute System (CAPS), with the introduction of Safe Return, an emergency automatic landing system that solves one of the most pressing concerns in personal aviation: What happens if something happens to the pilot?
Now there is an answer to that. Garmin has seen more than 1,000 aircraft delivered hosting versions of its Autoland system—but they’ve all been turbine- or turboprop-engined aircraft with an autothrottle already introduced.
So how would a piston OEM incorporate the system without that AT in place? The SR Series has had a combined prop/throttle lever and separate mixture, so how to solve that piece of the puzzle?
Turns out, it’s a digital mixture and throttle control system that kicks in when the Safe Return button is depressed and the protocols go into effect. I’d asked Ivy McIver, executive director for the SR Series, about the features added to the G7 that were, shall we say, opportune? when we flew the first version of the series in stealth mode back in December 2023. She couldn’t say it then, bien sûr, but the automated tank selection, flap overspeed functions, and enhanced envelope protection were all keys to the puzzle that would enable the Safe Return system.
I guess they figured out the automatic braking too.
In any event, it has been a pleasure all of these years to watch Cirrus wrap us bit by bit into that total safety envelope—and as a pilot, you get to choose which features you use during any given flight.
But now your passengers get a choice too, in case you’re “unable.”
