Airlines

A working group formed under the auspices of the Royal Aeronautical Society in June to develop standards for how simulator manufacturers can model the aerodynamics of deep stalls for transport category aircraft will have its first meeting on Monday.

Comprised of airframers, simulator manufacturers, aerodynamics experts and others, the steering group was formed as a follow-on to the RAeS's "Flight Simulation: Towards the Edge of the Envelope" conference held in London.

The year-long effort will include six meetings and produce a document meant to define how manufacturers can accurately reproduce the handling characteristics of a large transport aircraft in attitudes beyond the envelopes covered by manufacturer flight and wind tunnel testing.

Simulators typically include wind tunnel data for a certain range outside of the flight test envelope, followed by simple interpolation methods that do not accurately reflect the non-linear response of the aircraft in those regimes. The devices are not currently required to perform accurately in the realm outside of the flight or wind tunnel test points, nor are pilots currently trained to fly in those conditions.

Upset training and the associated deep stall handling characteristics however have gained new prominence in the industry following the stall-related fatal crash of a Colgan Air Q400 on approach to Buffalo, New York in February.