Garmin has a new product that will greatly improve the safety—and peace of mind—of single-pilot flights.

When I was flying regularly, I had several passengers ask me, “What should I do if you have a heart attack?”

How could I answer a question like that? I told them to pick up the mic, push the button, say “Mayday”, then do whatever ATC told them to do.

I always wanted to add the words, “then pray.” But I didn’t.

Now we will fly in a different world. Garmin’s new product, Autoland, will, in an emergency, take over the airplane, check the weather, select an airport, communicate with ATC, navigate to the airport, put down landing gear and flaps, land the airplane, brake to a stop, and cut off the engine.

A wise pilot will show his pax how to activate the Autoland by—can you believe this—pushing a button!

I would’ve really loved having such a great tool back when I was flying my family—wife, three kids and a dog!

Autoland will be standard equipment on the Piper M600/SLS turbine aircraft as well as the Cirrus Vision Jet. Other aircraft will—in my not so humble opinion—follow suit. Hopefully, smaller airplanes will be included in the future.

You can read more in a report from The Economist magazine, from Piper, and from Cirrus.

This is going to be huge!

I’d love to hear from you. Please send comments to [email protected].