A conference scheduled for Queensland in late June aims to correct a lack of upset prevention and recovery training (UPRT) in Australia.
UPRT addresses the actions of pilots in the moments immediately after a loss of control in-flight (LOC-I) event.
Convened by Paul Strike from Strike Aviation Training, the conference will include input from well-known US UPRT proponent Rich Stowell as part of his The Right Way Up – Downunder tour.
Strike Aviation Training organised the first UPRT conference in August 2022, which drew support from both CASA and Recreational Aviation Australia (RAAus). Strike and other specialist training organisations have been working with CASA on how to integrate UPRT into the training syllabus.
"Loss of control in-flight has existed since before the dawn of powered flight and the statistics remain static, no matter how much we have learnt since the days of Gustave Whitehead and the Wright Brothers at Kittyhawk," Strike told Australian Flying. "We need to keep talking about it.
"Every single UPRT seminar I attend or review identifies the flight instructor as the 'smoking gun'. We need to train our trainers better, so they can deliver the right information and pass on the necessary skills to reduce the statistics of LOC-I.
"Improving Instructors improves pilots."
Responses to a sudden LOC-I event are often characterised by an initial "startle and surprise" reaction from the pilot, which can lead to disaster in the absence of proper recovery techniques. As Paul Strike puts it "a loss of control event does not give you enough time to perform a HASELL check".
One of the problems hampering wide-spread adoption of UPRT in the CASA syllabus is the lack of clear training methods, which will be a strong focus of the conference, and a key reason for involving Stowell.
"Apart from EASA, UPRT is not mandated by any regulatory or administering body in the world," Strike points out. "Anyone delivering UPRT in Australia is literally making it up as they go along.
"Rich Stowell is known as the modern architect for UPRT in the USA, so why not learn from the best?"
UPRT has been put under the microscope several times in the past 25 years as a lack of understanding contributed to accidents such as Colgan Air 3407, Air France 447 and Diamond VH-MPM, which was lost on a training flight in Queensland.
Strike believes proper UPRT could prevent similar incidents in future, provided training becomes widely adopted in the GA community.
"We are striving to keep the momentum going to save lives, reduce hull losses and generally improve the knowledge and skills of pilots at all levels," he says.
The UPRT Conference is scheduled for Friday 28 June at Caboolture Aero Club in Queensland.
More information is on the conference website.