The technology already exists and is on the market, Tesla.the ability to maneuver almost two tonnes of the car around a town center, following poorly marked roads, pedestrians, and other road users or cruising on busy motorways. An autopilot system based on this tech is not too far of a stretch, and dare I say, it should be a lesser challenge.

The difference is a Tesla doesn't start spinning and go out of control very quickly if you fill too many seats or if you drive down a road with a tailwind.

It's a time of change for us all; AI is coming on strong. Cars already know how many occupants are in the vehicle; some can determine their weight via seat sensors. The craft will know its payload and weather before it even lifts off. Look at drone technology today. I feel it will give the industry a badly needed boost.
Automation will come, but I see an even greater need for professional pilots; no one wants automation in complete control on commercial flights, but it might make a huge difference safety-wise for the private pilot.

Yeah, err, all private sites have their own 100% reliable weather station, which also knows about the gazebo right next to the landing site, and the wind which is 180 degrees different when you get there.

etc

Interesting. Most of the “cheap” private owners I’ve worked for are quite the opposite. Maybe its location dependent? While I agree there are some owners who play by their own rules, there is an equal percentage of “expensive” private owners as well a few commercial operators who operate in the same manner you mention.

Will some of those "know-it-all" type owners end up in a HX50? Sure. But from what I’ve seen and heard, I think the majority of them will be on top of their game with all facets of the aircraft to include its maintenance. Hill is offering an opportunity that never really existed before in the rotor world. And if his method works, I think it will have a larger effect on private aircraft ownership regardless of aircraft type.

Wow - it knows the weather before it even lifts off.?! Where can I get one of those? At my airfield the wind direction and speed can change four times before I taxi to the end of the runway...

Maybe we should start implementing those awesome features in cargo industry before testing on meat bags?

the weight sensing is definitely doable. your home washing machine for example have them and last years without maintenance. But for airworthiness sake, it will be another PITA period FT. Keeps the b2 in the work force tho.

One thing you keep missing is that every gadget you add eats load.
It doesn't matter in car or washing machine, but it definitely matters in a mode of already not so efficient transport.

if you look at how light twins and now the light singles have been "adding mtow", by merely switching all the steam gauges, individual equipment boxes and analog computers into 2 redundant do it all LRUs and a bunch of sensors. these weight sensor will barely add a distributed kg. well within an error of margin of a robust ass. but i do think the convenient may not worth the effort both to make it reliable enough and the routine inspection mh.

Don't shoot the messenger; this stuff is already under development. There is an R44 test rig in existence demonstrating autonomous flying skyryse

The automotive industry already has a suite of car sensors measuring everything from speed and attitude to passenger occupancy and weight, mainly for safety systems, airbags, etc. The electronics are incredibly reliable, cheap, small, and lightweight. I watched a video about a Bell 505 in which the pilot entered the weights of his passengers into another Garmin; this can be done automatically.
For 2-3k, you can buy a DJI drone with 360-degree obstacle avoidance. Let one loose in a forest, and it's impressive to watch how it navigates its way through trees and branches, all in a cheap package. You can already plot a flight path on the ground on a mobile phone or tablet, upload it, and the drone will fly it; the drone's onboard obstacle avoidance ensures no crashes if you get it wrong.


Crystal Ball Time, the next systems for PPL, will offer an autopilot for flying at altitude and augmented pilot help for low-level flying, landing, etc. It's not really flying using piloting skills but rather similar to controlling a drone. The owner will nudge the cyclic in the direction they wish to go, and the onboard electronics will do all of the hard work.
I still believe the need for professional pilots will increase for commercial operations; Businesses will insist on having trained and certified meat sacs in control and command.

Dronedog - the key difference between a drone and a helicopter is if the drone gets it wrong, generally no one dies. The barrier to entry in "approved for flight" software outside the experimental class is the requirement to test ad infinitum, which plays havoc with a standard software development cycle. Something like automated obstacle avoidance, while "easy" in drone world, and certainly not impossible in helicopter world, is going to be far from cheap for a passenger carrying aircraft.

Note that the sophisticated R66 mod produced by Skryse is priced at 1.8 million USD for early adopters (and I'd imagine in line with Hill that'll go up later) Source

That's basically double the price of the standard airframe.
​​​​

I've been away for a couple of weeks - is the engine running yet? Is anything likely to happen before the end of the year? Are people still believing their money has been well spent? - asking for a friend:)

All of the above is true, my point being that the technology already exists to do this, and there are a number of companies working on fully or semi-autonomous flight systems. I am sure the CAA and FAA will severely restrict such a system but other countries with lax regulations will not.

https://www.ehang.com/ehangaav
https://www.aurora.aero/autonomy/
https://www.volocopter.com/en/
https://lilium.com/
etc

A month ago Mischa apparently uploaded a very informative pilot-oriented walkthrough of the pre-production prototype on his channel, which I never knew about until just now and don't think was linked here yet.

Hmmm... I am almost turning from total disbelief to almost thinking that it might happen. But when?

One statement of interest was that it will hover at MAUW OGE at 10,000' with up to a 35kt tailwind. Not bad for a single-spool turbine which doesn't exist yet.

Hovering with a 35 kt tailwind isn’t hovering!

According to that video the engine is to have a 30 seconds power rating (500 hp) above the take off power rating of 440 hp. Are there any other single engine helicopters with a 30 sec power rating? If there are, what kind of (take off and landing) procedures there are that use that rating?

I hear quite a few people are selling their 'slots' in the production queue now.