Automatic autoland activation methods and systems

A method of automatically activating an autoland functionality of an aircraft, the method comprising:

• identifying a current flight phase of the aircraft;
• identifying a duration of a threshold monitoring period associated with the current flight phase, wherein the duration of the threshold monitoring period varies depending on a flight phase type associated with the current flight phase;
• initiating a timer;
• monitoring one or more components onboard the aircraft for user input within the duration of the threshold monitoring period associated with the current flight phase;
• identifying, during the current flight phase, occurrence of a potential triggering event for the autoland functionality while monitoring the one or more components for user input within the threshold monitoring period associated with the current flight phase;
• in response to the occurrence of the potential triggering event, dynamically reducing the duration of the threshold monitoring period by a scaling factor associated with an event type associated with the potential triggering event to obtain a reduced monitoring period, wherein the scaling factor varies depending on the event type;
• detecting a potential incapacity condition in an absence of user input within the reduced monitoring period when an elapsed time associated with the timer is greater than the reduced monitoring period;
• and
• automatically initiating activation of the autoland functionality of the aircraft in response to detecting the potential incapacity condition.

A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions stored thereon that, when executed by a processing system, cause the processing system to:

• identify a first triggering event comprising a current flight phase associated with operation of an aircraft;
• identify a duration of a threshold monitoring period associated with the current flight phase, wherein the duration of the threshold monitoring period varies depending on a flight phase associated with the aircraft;
• initiating a timer;
• monitor one or more components onboard the aircraft for user input within the threshold monitoring period associated with the first triggering event;
• identify, during the current flight phase, occurrence of a second triggering event associated with operation of the aircraft different from a change in the flight phase while monitoring the one or more components for user input within the threshold monitoring period associated with the current flight phase;
• in response to the occurrence of the second triggering event, dynamically reduce the duration of the threshold monitoring period by a scaling factor associated with an event type associated with the second triggering event in response to the occurrence of the second triggering event to obtain a reduced monitoring period, wherein the scaling factor varies depending on the event type;
• detecting a potential incapacity condition in an absence of user input within the reduced monitoring period when an elapsed time associated with the timer is greater than the duration of the reduced monitoring period;
• and
• automatically initiate activation of an automated functionality of the aircraft in response to detecting the potential incapacity condition.