Story ID: 401
APS To Teach Army Upset Training
By: Curt Epstein
Caption: The company is partnering with CAE as part of the U.S. Army’s Fixed-wing flight training program.
Word Count: 461
Advanced flight training provider Aviation Performance Solutions (APS) has partnered with CAE to provide upset prevention and recovery training (UPRT) as part of the U.S. Army’s new fixed-wing flight training program in Dothan, Ala. Aimed at helping reduce the risk of loss of control, in-flight, (LOC-I), APS’s UPRT will be part of a training program that includes academics, simulator and live flight training, all of which will be conducted at CAE’s new training center, currently under construction at Dothan Regional Airport.  The program will support the transition of rotary-wing aviators to fixed-wing aircraft as well as training ab-initio fixed-wing students.

“Upset prevention and recovery training is a critical part of pilot training, so we are pleased to select APS as our UPRT training partner and look forward to working closely with APS to deliver a world-class UPRT program as part of Army fixed-wing flight training,” said Ray Duquette, president and general manager, CAE USA.

APS will base two senior instructors at the Dothan facility, where they will train and certify to company standards CAE instructor pilots to deliver UPRT on six new, aerobatic Grob G120TP trainers as well as on four CAE-built 7000XR series Beech King Air C-12 full flight simulators, which will feature FAA-approved UPRT instructor stations.

To date more than 100 CAE instructors have taken the APS course. “It is a great honor to expand APS’s longstanding U.S. Army UPRT program into the new Army Fixed-Wing Flight Training program,” said APS president Paul Ransbury “Together with CAE, we will take progressive steps to maximize air safety by providing Army pilots proven and effective upset prevention and recover training that provides the knowledge and skills necessary to overcome aviation’s primary cause of aircraft fatalities, which is loss of control in-flight.”

Arizona-based APS (Booth 4663) and its partner Top Aces recently added the Dornier Alpha Jet to APS’s UPRT training program, where it joins a fleet that includes Top Aces TA-4J Skyhawks and APS SIAI-Marchetti S211s, giving it “the widest array of jet training aircraft” to implement its training programs.

“Top Aces is a leader in high-performance air combat training for the U.S., NATO and allies worldwide, and is well suited to support APS’s leadership in jet upset training with our Alpha Jet and TA-4J aircraft,” noted Top Aces vice president David Philman. “The use of high-performance all-attitude jet aircraft provides the most robust training in upset prevention and recovery training for business and commercial aircraft today. Our Alpha Jets and Skyhawks allow pilots to safely train with confidence and investigate a wide variety of stall and upset recovery scenarios to help prevent loss of control in-flight.”