Story ID: 308
Flight Research Introes High-Mach Upset Training 
By: Mark Phelps
Caption: The Mojave, Calif., company has added upset recognition and recovery training in a Northtop F-5 fighter jet.
Word Count: 845
Loss of control inflight (LOC-I) is one of the aviation industry’s prime safety targets. That has opened a potentially lucrative market for training providers, and Flight Research Inc. (FRI, Booth 752) recently announced one of the latest programs to address the issue. Based at Mojave, Calif., the company has been providing upset recognition and recovery training (URRT) since 1981, but its latest course directly addresses high-Mach, high-performance jet operations. The new program, HiPer (High Performance) URRT, includes academics and a dynamic flight in one of FRI’s Northrop F-5 jet fighters. The first class is set to meet next month.

According to FRI, “Modern commercial jet aircraft operate at very high altitudes and very high speeds. Upsets in such flight conditions are magnified intensely, and hence, very specific piloting skills are required to safely recover.” The HiPer URRT program builds on FRI’s baseline URRT course that has been in place for decades. The new program is designed to address the issues of high-altitude, high-speed upsets, specifically.

The course starts with a classroom session that builds on the original URRT training. It explores high-altitude, high-Mach elements of aerodynamics, engine performance and human physiological factors. It includes a detailed look at the atmospheric environment at the upper flight levels.

The course culminates in a dynamic flight demonstration of all those elements in a Northrop F-5 supersonic fighter. The F-5 (FRI operates former Canadian military aircraft) was chosen for its balance of speed, handling, dispatch reliability and parts availability. Participants will experience, first-hand, the effects of high speed and high altitude on aircraft performance and aerodynamics. More important, experienced instructors will demonstrate techniques for effectively maneuvering and recovering from potential upsets at high Mach numbers. Students will also learn about transonic effects and other related conditions.

Program director and instructor Scott Glaser explained the principle behind the practical aspect of actually flying the airplanes under these conditions. “Airplanes like to fly. They’re designed, on purpose, to be capable of maneuvers and performance that most pilots never get even close to. Most spend 99 percent of their time flying within one tiny sliver of the flight envelope their airplane is capable of. Then something happens that takes them outside of that comfort zone, and they feel like they’re outside the airplane’s envelope, even though they’re actually not even close.”

What can happen next is that the pilot responds inappropriately as though the aircraft were in distress, and makes the situation worse. Pilot error can cause the airplane to exceed its performance envelope. The surprise element is a large part of the problem.

“What we do here,” said Glaser, “is to fly into some of those situations with students, so they can experience what it actually feels like to explore outside their comfort zone. They learn that the unexpected is not necessarily bad, and once they’ve been there, you can build a toolbox to help you out of any other unexpected situation.”

Glaser said the HiPer URRT program, like the original, is tailored to the individual student. For example, a former fighter pilot who’s been flying nothing but corporate Gulfstreams for the past 25 years will likely see a different mission profile than the university-trained newly type-rated Gulfstream pilot who’s scarcely seen more than 60 degrees of bank.

“We can customize the program based on pilot backgrounds, comfort level and mission profile,” said Glaser. For example, FRI has trained Customs, Border Patrol and fire-fighting pilots as well as more typical button-down bizjet jockeys. Interestingly, the HiPer course was driven by customer pilots–in many cases those flying modern business jets such as the Citation X and the G650 with high-speed cruise Mach numbers of 0.93 or greater. “It can be very easy in those aircraft to get real fast and not recognize it in a timely manner,” said Glaser.

Conversely, he said, the greater danger is on the slow end of the performance envelope at high altitude. At the upper flight levels, slow-speed behavior is “a whole new ball of wax,” said Glaser. For example, recovery might chew up thousands of feet of altitude from speeds where it takes hundreds at lower altitudes. “That’s where a pilot might get into trouble, unless he learns that that’s normal.” Walking the student up to that point in a training environment, in an airplane that’s designed for it, can be a confidence builder, he said.

The HiPer URRT program enables pilots to “fly themselves into situations” at their own pace, said Glaser, and when the instructor discerns they are comfortable enough, he can introduce unexpected upsets, to help mitigate the danger of the surprise factor.”

The human factor plays a big role in how the training proceeds, said Glaser. “You can never predict how any individual will respond to new experiences based on previous experience,” he said. That’s why FRI puts pilots in a real-world high-performance jet, at real-world speeds and altitudes.