The DEW Line doesn't normally cover civilian aviation, but
the certain issues are important enough to warrant special attention--such as
recovering an aircraft from upset conditions. Upset conditions begin in a
roughly defined "box" where the bank angles exceed 45˚ and attitudes
exceed 25˚ nose-up and 10˚ nose-down for large jet aircraft.
Typically, civilian pilot training does not cover much more than 10% of the all-attitude environment - up to 30˚ of pitch and 60˚ of bank. The result is that most commercial pilots are not adequately trained to deal with upset conditions should they experience them.
And, with the exception of certain military aviators, certification test pilots and a few others, the vast majority of pilots only experience training with full aerodynamic stalls early in the training process.
Unfortunately, the result is that a when faced with those types of situations, most pilots will react incorrectly as the data shows. But, after the crash of Air France 447 over the Atlantic a few years ago, things are starting to change as more attention is being paid to the problem.
A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to fly with APS--a company that specializes in upset recovery training. Their instructor pilots are mostly former military aviators. The company president is a former Canadian Forces CF-18 Hornet pilot. The pilot I flew with, Clarke McNeace, is a former Navy pilot who also flew the Hornet.
You can read the full story here
Here are some excerpts from my flight--edited by my colleague Andrew Costerton in England.
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