Story ID: 403E
APS Expands Upset Training Capabilities
By: Matt Thurber
Caption: The new expanded training taps modern simulators to help pilots learn how to handle upset situations.
Word Count: 568
Aviation Performance Solutions (APS, Booth 1117) has added a new feature in its integrated academic, on-aircraft, and simulator training services that addresses the gap in upset prevention and recovery training (UPRT) for four classes of airplanes. This expanded training takes advantage of APS’s new Alsim simulator, located at its headquarters at Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport in Mesa, Arizona. The simulator can be reconfigured for UPRT in light and large multiengine turboprops, multiengine business jets, and large transport-category airplanes.

APS also has access to integrated UPRT solutions at its other facilities in North America and Europe. The integrated UPRT is part of APS’s three-day upset training program, which combines on-aircraft and simulator training. The simulator training can also be included as an enhancement to any of APS’s recurrent upset training programs.

Loss-of-control in-flight (LOC-I) still accounts for the majority of crash-related fatalities in commercial aviation. “Unfortunately,” according to APS, “statistical trends show the LOC-I threat to be increasing in proportion to other accident causes.”

“The main reason [for recurrent training] is because, despite APS delivering proven-effective long-lasting competencies, we have seen a gradual, unavoidable knowledge and skill decline over time,” said Clark “Otter” McNeace, APS vice president of flight operations and standards. “In fact, we generally see a 30 percent reduction at the two-year mark and as much as 45 percent after three years.”

In addition to the two-mission core UPRT skills recurrent program, clients can opt for full- or half-day enhancements. These include upsets by reference to instruments; spin awareness and recovery training; UPRT skills training in the simulator for multiengine turboprops or jets; high-altitude, high-Mach UPRT transition in the S-211 jet; and an aerobatics-specific enhancement if the customer desires.

The S-211 training offers a unique opportunity for pilots to experience how performance differs between the low-, medium-, and high-altitude environments. “It's an excellent upgrade to the standard recurrent program, especially if they didn't get a chance to do it in their initial training,” McNeace explained. “In addition to the glass cockpit and IFR UPRT hood options, there are substantial differences, especially in terms of thrust availability at high altitude, for example, which can be up to an 80 percent loss.”

The other key factor that pilots learn in the S-211 is the increased sensitivity of flight controls at high altitudes. “Decreased aerodynamic damping at high altitude causes the airplane to be much more sensitive,” he said, “so it becomes easier to overcontrol the airplane than it would be in the low-altitude environment, which is where most pilots would have most of their skill sets developed in upset training.”

The S-211 is equipped with Garmin glass displays, giving pilots who fly modern business jets a more familiar flight deck environment. Powered by a Pratt & Whitney Canada JT15D turbofan, the swept-wing S-211 can be safely used for full stalls and is approved for upright spins, although these are not part of the standard APS UPRT program. APS high-altitude training includes thrust-limited slowdowns, wake-turbulence encounters, full stalls, nose-high and nose-low upsets, all-attitude maneuvering, and high-Mach intervention strategies.

“APS’s ability to quickly reconfigure its advanced simulator to four distinct classes of airplanes helps better serves our customers’ critical safety upset training needs in models and classes of airplanes as close as possible their airplane,” said APS president Paul BJ Ransbury.
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