E veryone is aware that in-flight loss of control is the most common cause of fatal accidents in general aviation, jets, and even airlines. It is also the topic of my presentations at EAA SUN’ n FUN and Oshkosh in the FAA Forums. So, let’s look at what some popular Upset Prevention Recovery Training (UPRT) schools teach.
I have had the pleasure of attending several aerobatic and UPRT schools. A few decades ago, I thought attending aerobatic instruction would improve my basic flying, so I attended a four-day aerobatic course with three-time national champion Clint McHenry. I learned more in that short week than in a year of basic instruction. A couple of years later, I convinced my wife to vacation by the Atlantic Ocean in Flagler County, FL, while I attended a similar course with Montaine Mallet from the husband-and-wife French Connection Aerobatic Team. I was exhilarated by both courses. When I would first do a maneuver or a spin, it was a blur. But after the third time, it became more normalized and easier to accomplish. It taught me to fly in three dimensions.
In recent years, aerobatic training has been separated from Upset Prevention Recovery Training (UPRT). The main goal of aerobatic training is to teach pilots how to fly a planned precision maneuver precisely. UPRT aims to help pilots avoid, prevent and recover from an unplanned excursion or upset.
My recent training experiences have been focused on UPRT. I have had the privilege of training with three of the top upset recovery schools: Patty Wagstaff Aviation Safety LLC in St. Augustine, FL; Stallion 51 in Kissimmee, FL; and Aviation Performance Solutions (APS) in Mesa, AZ. All three had excellent instructors and provided superb training experiences.
At Patty Wagstaff Aviation Safety, I flew the Extra 300, an excellent fully aerobatic airplane capable of more G loading than I am. They also have the Super Decathlon, which is an excellent UPRT aircraft. We focused on upset recovery training but did perform some aerobatic maneuvers, such as a Reverse Cuban Eight, to put us into position to recover from an upset.
The instructors at each training center had me perform some maneuvers to identify a learning point. We performed stalls in a bank and recovered without rolling the wings level, emphasizing that we can recover just by reducing the angle of attack (AOA). We recovered from power-off stalls without adding power. (I had just done this in a glider, showing this can be done without an engine.) We performed stalls in a slip and a skid and learned how the airplane would roll. If you’re in a skidding turn to the left (too much left rudder) with a 30-degree left bank, the airplane quickly departs controlled flight and rolls about 90 degrees to the left, leaving you inverted. In a slipping turn to the left (too much right rudder or not enough left rudder), the airplane still stalls but in a more docile roll over the top. If it rolls 90 degrees to the right, you are still upright (not inverted) and have more time to recover. Another valuable lesson I learned was performing stalls while adding ¼ inch of rudder. When the stall breaks, the airplane rolls at a slow to moderate rate in the direction of the rudder. It was interesting to see how just ¼ inch of rudder, in a properly rigged airplane, demonstrated how the airplane must only be slightly uncoordinated. What a great demonstration to better understand a cross-controlled stall.
Stallion 51 in Kissimmee uses Aero Vodochody L-39 jets, North American P-51 Mustangs, and the North American T-6. I chose to fly the P-51 Mustang earlier this year, just before the start of EAA SUN’ n FUN. Flying the P-51 was certainly a dream come true. I always admired its beautiful lines even before I knew the storied history of the airplane. With 1700 horsepower in the Merlin Engine, we were able to do some interesting maneuvers. We performed three sets of steep turns followed by three loops. With the powerful engine, we were able to perform steep turns with 70 degrees of bank and 3 Gs. In the first turns, we would just hold 70 degrees of bank and 3 Gs for the maneuver. During the second set of turns, the instructor directed me to ride the edge of the stall buffet through the entire maneuver. No other airplane I’ve flown has had the power to do that. For our final steep turns, I flew the edge of the stall buffet for most of the 360-degree turn and then pulled the stick back, increasing the angle of attack until a full break occurred, followed by performing an upset recovery. Wow! We then repeated the adventure with three loops, attempting the same scenarios. The last one was startling as I did a full stall break while inverted in a loop. The yaw and torque from the Merlin engine were so powerful that it essentially flipped me right-side up, making the recovery very easy.
Until a few years ago, the FAA published the stall recovery procedure as a lengthy multi-page narrative in the Airplane Flying Handbook. In 2019, the FAA mandated new training requirements with new stall recovery and upset guidance for airlines via Aviation Circular 120-109A.
2-5. RECOVERY PROCEDURES. AC 120-109A (for FAR Part 121 Airlines)
- Disconnecting the autopilot and auto-throttle/auto-thrust systems,
- Reducing the airplane’s AOA immediately,
- Controlling roll after
- reducing the airplane AOA,
- Managing thrust
- appropriately, and
- Returning the airplane to
- the desired flight path
Following the change for the airlines, the FAA subsequently added a Stall Recovery Template to the Airplane Flying Handbook.
Some of the top schools instructing UPRT have taken this a step further and added a mantra or strategy for stall and upset recovery.
Patty Wagstaff Aviation Safety (PWAS) uses:
LURR
LOOK – keep your eyes on the horizon
UNLOAD – elevator to neutral, to 0.5 Gs
ROLL – coordinated aileron and rudder to wings level
RECOVER – to climb pitch & power, manage P factor, little rt rudder
Aviation Performance Solutions (APS) uses:
UPRPS
“UPSET” – recognize upset, autopilot and autothrottle-off
PUSH – to lower AOA, to 0.5 Gs, and lower stall speed
ROLL – after stall is eliminated (no rolling pull)
POWER – to manage energy state
STABILIZE – nose low may be required to regain energy
APS adds the following note to their welcome letter:
“First, we must clearly understand what each step is addressing and what response each requires for each situation encountered. Secondly, it is not enough to simply understand these steps intellectually. The strategy must be correctly practiced and correctly applied. Repetition to proficiency in a wide diversity of developing and developed upsets is crucial. Each step requires rapid-fire correct judgments and proportional responses that are difficult, in our opinion impossible, to correctly and
consistently administer without practical skill development under the guidance of UPRT experts.”
Stalls and upsets are repeatedly practiced at the schools using the above recovery strategies. The rationale is that during an upset, you will already be startled and removed from flying the airplane, so a simple recovery strategy will be more repeatable and easier to remember months after your UPRT training.
The aircraft training upsets would start simply and progress to more and more complex upsets. But the recovery for upsets was always the same, building on the recovery strategy. In addition to learning the recovery strategy through repeated exercises, the instructors were also programming the students to be able to consistently repeat a 0.5 Gs push to reduce the AOA, and a 2.5 Gs pullout from a dive or spiral. The instructors were also very conscientious of the well-being of the students. These are not courses where the instructor will push your G-limits to show how good or tough the instructor is. There is a constant awareness of how the student is doing. Instead, the focus is on the student’s comfort in order to provide the best learning environment. The briefings were “TOP GUN” style, professional, articulate, and succinct.
Students know exactly what to expect on each flight. Practice areas were near the airports to maximize training and minimize commute time or student discomfort in rare cases. The sequential application of flight controls also promotes learning and accuracy and follows the new airline recovery procedure. Aerobatic maneuvers such as aileron rolls, inverted flight, and Cuban eights are used to put the airplane into an unusual attitude for recovery. You may also include recovery from simulated instrument flight as well. This can be done in a simulator and an aerobatic Marchetti S211 Jet at APS. Some of the maneuvers you will perform are listed below.
Unusual attitude
Overbank, spiral dive
Nose high, nose low, inverted
Wake turbulence
Stall
Power off/on stall
Accelerated stall
Secondary stalls
Slipping cross-controlled stall
Skidding cross-controlled stall
Sustained stalled flight
Incipient spin (aggravated stall)
Spin (NASA standard spin recovery P.A.R.E.)
Some pilot training centers and airlines have adopted these training programs and the recovery strategies. AVIATE Flight Training Academy, United Airlines, and Delta Airlines have all adopted the program from Aviation Performance Solutions in Mesa, Arizona.
Based on my experience, I encourage you to attend a UPRT course. You will learn a lot, become a better pilot, and, if you are like me, have a lot of fun doing so.
