CAE has partnered Mesa, Arizona-based flight training provider APS to provide web-based and in-aircraft upset prevention and recovery training as an option for business aviation and airline clients.
While CAE already offers the APS-developed interactive web-based version of the aircraft upset recovery training aid, a 443-page document developed by the US Federal Aviation Administration and the airline industry in 1998 to explain the physics behind, and the preferred recovery from, upsets, clients are now being offering a "graduated" programme that includes flight time in aircraft and simulators .
The FAA in July recommended that all airline, air taxi and fractional operators incorporate applicable sections of the upset recovery aid into their training programmes. "Although the overall accident rate has decreased, the category of loss of control continues to outpace other factors as the leading cause of fatal accidents in the last 20 years," the FAA said in the information for operators bulletin.
"A recent NASA-sponsored study has defined loss of control as 'flight outside of the normal flight envelope, with non-linear influences, and with an inability of the pilot to control the aircraft'."
Despite the aid being readily available for more than 10 years, the industry has not fully embraced the training. In a recent CAE-hosted study of a cross-section of more than 120 representatives from the airline and business aviation community, 62% said they had not used the tool, says Lou Nemeth, chief safety officer for CAE.
CAE's new four-day "graduated" training will add in-flight and simulator modules to the online upset recovery aid training using APS's Extra 300L propeller-driven aircraft, an Aero Vodochody L-39 Albatros single-engined jet soon to be on the flightline, and an Embraer ERJ-145 full-flight simulator. "We have a complete strategy in the next step," says Nemeth of the new programme. "They'll manage startle angle of attack and g-forces."
Nemeth says the company is "in discussion with a number of clients that want this course" and will roll it out on a "type by type" basis as needed. "Corporate aviation is taking safety in their own hands," says Nemeth. "They've identified loss of control in flight as a big threat."
The three- to four-day course will include computer-based training and a series of flights in the Extra 300 or L-39 followed by full-flight simulator training.
Source: Flight International
