I have just watched this absolutely first class video on unusual attitude recovery techniques for airline aircraft. The link was cut and pasted from a thread on the subject currently in Pprune Rumours and News Forum. Produced by American Airlines circa 1997, the presenter was Captain Warren Vandenburgh (sadly now deceased). The link being buried among the many posts on that forum subject, I thought it well worthwhile to mention its value in Tech Log.
While the video and its associated series called Children of the Magenta Line has been around for many years, it has been my experience that very few of todays generation of airline pilots have even heard of the video, let alone seen it. In this writer's view, the video should be part of the induction process of every airline pilot. In recent times, there has been a plethora of documentation issued by regulatory authorities requiring simulator training of pilots in unusual attitude recovery action. Some flying schools have jumped on the band-wagon by advertising for pilots to pay to undergo training on light aerobatic aircraft to experience the "G" forces that occur and which may cause disorientation. All this in visual conditions of course. Personally I doubt the value of this type of training since unusual attitude recovery training in jet transport aircraft has little in common with an inverted spin in a Pitts Special.
What is missing from much of the documentation on the subject is the vital importance of instrument flying skill in interpreting what the flight instruments are telling you; especially if in IMC. Already we know that automation addiction/dependence can lead to degradation of instrument flying skill where manual flying is concerned . There is no shortage of evidence from accident reports where Loss of Control occurred, that poor instrument flying ability was a contributory cause. Vandenburg makes the vital point that the first action by the pilot should an unusual attitude occur, is to disengage the autopilot and autothrottle and recover to level flight manually. This is precisely where manual instrument flying skills if in IMC or at night are so important. Not being familiar with fly-by-wire types such as the Airbus series, I leave that subject to others more qualified.
In April 1967, the first edition of Handling the Big Jets was published in UK. Its author, D.P Davies, was then Chief Test Pilot of the United Kingdom Airworthiness Authority. Reviews of the book included this from the International Federation of Airline Pilots Associations News bulletin:... "can truly be described as the 'best of its kind in the world' and not only for the fact that there is no other book on modern aircraft handling characteristics....we can recall no book which bears so directly on the pilot's problem.. .written by a test pilot for airline pilots, the book is likely to become a standard text book."
I believe those accolades could equally apply to the video presentation by Captain Vandenburgh on the subject of Unusual Attitude Recoveries. Titles for the subject vary but the latest is Upset Prevention and Recovery Training or UPRT. However, in his presentation, it is notable that Captain Vandenburgh concentrates solely on the recovery technique from unusual attitudes; or Upsets as it is sometimes called. He leaves the prevention of an unusual attitude in the first place, to a pilots professional competency. In other words that's another subject. His point is to teach airline pilots what to do step by step if for any reason an unusual attitude has already happened. That is the beauty of the video. His instructional technique is superb, with just the right touch of dry humour.
The presentation shows diagrams of extreme attitudes that have been known to occur - including inverted flight. A classic example of a picture is worth a thousand words. He gives examples of what he has seen of unusual attitudes in simulator training. At least one major airline I know restricts its simulator training to manoeuvres that meet only the text book definitions of an unusual attitude; including bank angles of 45 degrees, nose high of 25 degrees, nose low 10 degrees. There is no simulator training outside these definitions; purportedly because simulator fidelity is not guaranteed. In turn, this misses the whole point that loss of control accidents have occurred precisely after these so called limitations to simulator fidelity have been exceeded. Warren Vandenburgh makes effective use of a model aircraft to illustrate extreme nose high and low attitudes right up to inverted flight.
This video should be re-visited during scheduled simulator sessions. It's value is that immense.