Nearly 60 Percent of Professional Pilots Fail LOC Tests

After 50 percent of professioinal pilots and nearly 75 percent of general aviation pilots failed to recover from Loss of Control In-Flight (LOC-I) upsets, APS Emergency Maneuver Training, a division of Aviation Performance Solutions LLC (APS), developed unique training to help pilots cope with the leading cause of crash-related fatalities. Regulators have focused on upset recovery since the mid-1990s when a Boeing 737 crashed in Pittsburgh resulting from a rudder flaw. Shortly thereafter, an ATR-72 crashed in Roselawn, Ind after ice accumulating on the wings caused the aileron to deflect through the aircraft into a roll. While APS’s research only pulsed a small sample, it is surprising that so few pilots were able to cope with loss of control scenarios.
"Our Loss of Control In-Flight research was motivated by the recognition that without an ability to identify the need or implement an effective solution, aviation would continue to be affected by high rates of loss of control crashes and associated fatalities indefinitely," said President Paul BJ Ransbury. "As evidenced by our research results, pilots are ill-equipped to deal with loss of control scenarios beyond the accepted limitations of their training requirements during pilot certification and recurrent simulator training. Just as important as identifying this skill deficit in pilots is our demonstrated capability to dramatically improve a pilot’s ability to effectively resolve a wide variety of loss of control situations.”
APS is now looking for external funding to augment its research efforts to provide a worldwide solution to prevent LOC-I accidents. It cited a 2007 Boeing Aircraft Company report, Statistical Summary of Commercial Jet Airplane Accidents Worldwide – 1959 to 2006, which said LOC-I represents the most severe causal factor of crash-related fatalities from 1997 through 2006 – even more than the historic leader, Controlled Flight Into Terrain. According to the Commercial Aviation Safety Team, there has been recent industry emphasis on fatalities being a more accurate representation of the severity of an accident as opposed to hull-losses traditionally used as the indicator.
APS formally evaluated 115 licensed pilots, of varying experience and certification levels, in their ability to recover from extreme flight conditions representative of LOC-I scenarios. Overall performance varied somewhat within pilot certification levels with professional aviators showing the best results at a 42 percent success rate and private pilots flying small general aviation aircraft at 28 percent.
APS reported that after its specialized training these same pilots were able to consistently recover from 94 percent of the same loss of control situations. In addition to dramatic skill development, the research also demonstrated the ability of pilots graduating from an APS three-day, five-flight upset recovery training program to retain over 75 percent of their skills 18 months after completing the course. So far, the research has been internally sponsored by APS to identify the need in the marketplace and to demonstrate the effectiveness of a specialized training solution.
APS Emergency Maneuver Training, an FAA-approved 141 Flight School specializing in Upset Recovery, Spin Training and Instrument Recovery courses, is the largest provider of dedicated upset recovery training services in North America. The company uses the Extra 300L German-built aerobatic training aircraft, the highest performance certified aerobatic aircraft in the world, and expert military-trained, commercially experienced flight instructors.