The benefits and limitations of ground-based upset-recovery training for general aviation pilots

Research by Rogers et al (2009) and Leland et al established that flight simulator training can improve a pilot’s ability to recover a general aviation aeroplane from an in-flight upset. To reach this conclusion, they administered simulator-based and classroom-based upset-recovery training to two groups of student pilots, then compared their performance in recovering an aerobatic Decathlon aeroplane from a series of four upsets with the performance of a third group of untrained control group pilots subjected to the same upsets. We extend this result by addressing the unanswered question of how much classroom-based training as opposed to simulator-based training contributes to improving a pilot’s upset-recovery manoeuvring skills. After receiving classroom-based upset-recovery training but no simulator training, our participants were subjected to the same series of four upsets in the same Decathlon aeroplane. We then compared the performance of the classroom-trained pilots with the performances of control group pilots and the two groups of simulator-trained pilots. Statistical analysis suggests that classroom-based instruction alone improves a pilot’s ability to recover an aeroplane from an upset. We summarise related research, describe the training experiment and the training program, analyse and interpret flight-test data, and explain what our research implies with respect to establishing career-long commercial pilot upset-recovery training requirements.