Canadian simulator maker CAE, based in Montreal, has partnered with Aviation Performance Solutions (APS) Emergency Maneuver Training in Mesa, Arizona, to provide Upset Prevention and Recovery Training (UPRT) to students and instructors at CAE’s Oxford Aviation Academy.
CAE says it recognizes the value this type of training has on preventing loss of control in flight (LOC-I) accidents – an area that the industry has focused on as a result of fatal commercial accidents where it was determined that the probable cause was LOC-I. Earlier this year, the FAA released AC 120-109, which provides guidance for stall recognition and prevention, which the training at APS complies with.
APS has already started training students and instructors involved in CAE’s Air Transport Pilot License (ATPL) program and, beginning next year, APS will train about 200 CAE Oxford Aviation Academy students and instructors. The training is focused primarily on how to recognize and prevent stalls, upset flight attitudes and other unusual attitudes from occurring, but also how to promptly recover as these situations present themselves.
The all attitude upset recovery strategy taught at APS involves a simple and quick five step method. Because of the simplicity of the method and the repetition through the training program, APS claims 97.6 percent of its students applied correct recovery techniques at the completion of the program, up from 41.6 before the training – data based on a study APS conducted with 115 professional pilots during 2007 and 2008.
APS uses primarily Extra 300 airplanes for its UPRT program, but also a CAE Embraer ERJ 145 simulator to show how the experience in the Extra transfers to other airplanes, even to much larger ones.
