I asked Claude to look up the X-Plane 12 API and try to fly a Cessna from Hainan to somewhere nearby. It kept a pilot's log. Everything below is Claude's own notes from during the flight. I occasionally had to remind it to keep the pilot log running, and had to tell it when it crashed as xplane would quickly restart to the runway. The main issue seemed to be delay from what it saw with screenshots and api data and changing course. It quickly made itself a python script to take off, then would add functions to the script as it needed to take action. It would position to land then not change angle quick enough and crash into the ground.
15:54 Lined up on RWY 09 at Haikou Meilan (ZJHK). Cessna 172, throttle idle, parking brake set. POS 19.93N 110.44E, ALT 73 ft MSL, HDG 092. Destination: Qionghai Bo'ao (ZJQH), ~47 nm south. Plan: full power, rotate ~55 kt, climb at Vy 75 kt to 4500 ft, turn south to 180, cruise, descend, attempt landing on RWY 18.
15:57 AIRBORNE. Cleanly off the runway after a ~12-second ground roll. Rotated at 55 kt, climbing at +861 fpm, 70 kt IAS, 11.4 nose up, wings level, 411 ft AGL. Heading drifted 80-92 on the takeoff roll (left yaw on power application, typical 172) but the rudder loop pulled it back. Pitch is a bit steep, speed sagging below target Vy. Going to hand off to hold_loop and trade some pitch for airspeed.
15:59 UPSET. Handed off to hold_loop right after rotation and the controller decided 861 fpm was too much climb for its 700 fpm target. Commanded full forward elevator. We pitched over hard, hit 125 kt IAS, rolled to 60 LEFT bank, heading swung from 092 to 229 before the loop dragged it back. Currently 75 kt, +5 roll, hdg 100, climbing 143 fpm at full throttle, 415 ft MSL. Recovered but rattled. Root cause: elevator gain too high with no rate damping, AND I let the controller command nose-DOWN when we were 4000 ft below target altitude.
16:00 CRASHED. Nose-first off the end of the upset. Position reset back to runway 09. Rewriting hold_loop with slew-rate limits, asymmetric VS targets (no nose-down when far below target), smooth handoff from takeoff state, and a low-altitude failsafe. Then we try again.
16:09 STABLE FLIGHT, third attempt. Rewrote controller as pure proportional: alt_err to target_pitch (capped) to P-controller on pitch attitude to elevator. NO integral term in the inner loop, the airframe is the integrator. After takeoff, cruise hold settled at 82 kt IAS, +7 pitch, +780 fpm climb, 1 roll, holding heading within 4. Currently 763 ft MSL climbing toward 1500. Plan: continue climb, then left circuit (crosswind 002, downwind 272, base 182, final 092), descent, landing.
16:12 Stable cruise. Overshot 1200 MSL target by ~600 ft (climbed at full power, controller couldn't stop the climb in time, needs anticipation logic), but settled at 1819 MSL, 82 kt, on heading 092. About 4 nm east of the runway. Turning LEFT to crosswind heading 002 next.
16:15 Downwind leg 272, 1438 ft MSL, 83 kt, wings level, descending 110 fpm. Currently 5 nm E, 2.3 nm N of the runway threshold. Need to fly west across the airport, then south, then turn back east for final.
16:20 Downwind extended successfully. 2.0 nm WEST of RWY 09 threshold, 2.3 nm NORTH. 800 ft MSL, 81 kt, wings level. Plane wouldn't slow to 75 kt, speed-to-throttle gain too gentle. Setting flaps 20 to slow down, then turning LEFT base 182.
16:23 Base turn complete but still 1.4 nm NORTH of the runway centerline. Base leg was too short, only got 0.9 nm south. Also dropped IAS to 58 kt (too slow, flaps + descent throttle limit). Patched the controller to bring throttle back up if speed sags during descent. Extending the base leg another ~90s to reach the centerline before turning final.
16:31 CRASHED #2, different cause. Plane was stable in a slow descent but between fly.py invocations (~20 sec gap while I logged and computed the next maneuver) there was no active controller. Plane kept descending under its last commanded controls until it hit terrain at 26 ft MSL, 1.7 nm short of the runway. Lesson: never leave the controller idle in flight.
16:31 END OF SESSION. Two crashes, one stable cruise, no successful landing. Took off 3 times cleanly. The third controller (pure proportional, P-on-pitch-attitude) was stable through climb, level cruise, and three 90 turns of a left circuit at 1500-1800 MSL. The geometry of the pattern and the no-controller-gap killed the landing attempt, not the autopilot itself.
Can Claude fly a plane? so far, no. I think an impoved harness loop and it would be able to, a few tweaks and its probably as yes, to be continued...