Research into unusual attitudes takes the search for information into
a number of possible areas. As Boeing's Commercial Aircraft Group
discovered, a sequence of sometimes as many as 20 events or errors
leads to in-flight accidents. "Unusual attitudes" or "spatial
disorientation" have often been described as the root cause of
accidents from flight into weather. And two highly-publicized
accidents – with Gov. Mel Carnahan and John F. Kennedy Jr. – have
reinforced that impression.
AOPA AIR SAFETY FOUNDATION
-------------------------------------
An excellent start is with AOPA's Air Safety Foundation and the annual
Nall Report, which details the causes of accidents each year. The
most-recent is "Nall Report, 2001":
http://www.aopa.org/asf/publications/01nall.pdf
(Note too that previous years' Nall Reports are available on-line.)
In the introduction by Bruce Landsburg, Executive Director of AOPA
ASF, he notes that
"In general terms, little has changed. . . Low-level maneuvering
flight and weather remained the two largest fatal accident producers."
"In 2002 the focus shifts to spatial disorientation. In 2000, there
2000, there were 13 spatial disorientation accidents with the majority
caused by VFR flight into instrument conditions."
The report notes that:
n weather still a killer – with 86% of accidents being fatal
n night flight increases the risk of accidents
n high percentage of loss-of-control fatalities are during personal
flights
n VFR into IMC declining (probably due to emphasis on instrument
training during primary instruction) – but is still significant
The Safety Foundation has also produced a booklet "Spatial
Disorientation: Confusion That Kills" (December, 2000):
http://www.avweb.com/other/aopa_sa17.pdf
AOPA's Pilot Magazine has a number of articles on the topic, with some
interesting anecdotes.
AOPA Pilot Magazine
"In-Flight Emergencies" (August, 1999) describes rapid recoveries from
unusual attitudes to handle emergencies in mountain turbulence and in
near-collisions:
http://www.aopa.org/pilot/features/inflight9908.html
--
AOPA Pilot Magazine
"Escaping Cloud Encounters" (September, 1997)
www.aopa.org/pilot/features/mos9709.html
Using either Google's site search capability or that on the AOPA site,
you'll see a number of references to "unusual attitudes" or "spatial
disorientation."
AOPA's Air Safety Foundation database is also now on-line, if you find
it useful in your research:
http://www.aopa.org/asf/ntsb/index.html
NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BOARD (NTSB)
------------------------------------------------------------
Several times in the past decade the NTSB has issued a call for
increased pilot training in unusual attitudes. It occurred in 1996,
when the NTSB made strong recommendations for general training in
unusual attitudes in this report "October 16, 1996 Public Meeting on
B-737 Safety Recommendations":
http://www.ntsb.gov/Pressrel/1996/961016.htm
It arose again during the "NTSB GAAP Symposium" (Sept. 22, 2000) tied
to a discussion of training and spatial disorientation:
http://www.ntsb.gov/events/2000/gaaps/Transcript_2.htm
And though this recommendation is specifically for training of Boeing
737 pilots who might face unusual attitudes during a rudder-reversal
incident, the need for training is cited again by the NTSB after the
USAir Flight 427 accident in the report:
http://www.ntsb.gov/events/usair427/docket/d299.pdf
AVIATION SAFETY REPORTING SYSTEM (ASRS)
-----------------------------------------------------
Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS) program is run by NASA and was
established to monitor flight safety issues through reports directly
from pilots, controllers and mechanics. The operation, based at
Moffett Field in San Jose, has done 56 summary reports over the years
on issues – but unfortunately they don't even have titles listed
on-line. I'd strongly recommend contacting them to determine which
topics might cover your area and to request a copy of the report:
http://asrs.arc.nasa.gov/contact_nf.htm
The ASRS database is available in several formats and they also
publish extracts of data that you might find useful, such as "General
Aviation Flight Training" and "In-flight Weather Encounters":
http://asrs.arc.nasa.gov/report_sets_nf.htm
you may wish to gain direct access to the database of more than
300,000 pilot reports. "Requesting ASRS Data" tells you how to do so:
http://asrs.arc.nasa.gov/database_nf.htm
FLIGHT STANDARDS DISTRICT OFFICE (FSDO) RESOURCES
--------------------------------------------------------------------
The front-line safety people for the FAA are the Safety Program
managers who deal with General Aviation and Training. Scott Gardiner,
of the Seattle FSDO, has been strident about preparing for unusual
attitudes and spatial disorientation through training. You can reach
him via the Seattle FSDO:
http://www1.faa.gov/fsdo/seafsdo/start.htm
The FSDO safety program people are probably closest to recommended
changes in flight training curricula for general aviation and would be
excellent contacts.
Each of the FSDO district offices has their own newsletters and very
different formats to web pages, so might be excellent resources. This
is the FAA list of "Flight Standards Region and Field Offices":
http://www1.faa.gov/avr/afs/fsdo/index.cfm
MORE FAA RESOURCES
---------------------------
The FAA receives recommendations from NTSB, then decides on a course
of action. The FAA responses to NTSB recommendations are in a
database on-line at the FCC page titled "NASDAC Subjects of Interest":
https://www.nasdac.faa.gov/servlet/page?_pageid=108,112&_dad=nasdac&_schema=NASDAC
Another FAA page references weather-related accident studies:
https://www.nasdac.faa.gov/aviation_studies/weather_study/studyindex.html
AVWEB
---------
Being an on-line publication, Avweb has 43 different articles on
"spatial disorientation" (none on "unusual attitudes") including a
very interesting user poll with comments:
http://www.avweb.com/qotw/qotwform.cgi?0029
The following Google search strategy will list them (or you can use
Google's Advanced Search or the Google toolbar):
site:www.avweb.com "Spatial disorientation"
OTHER RESOURCES
The United States abandoned spin training as a mandatory part of
primary flight instruction over two decades ago. It's hard to find
the documentation on-line regarding the FAA decision, but it was
eliminated more recently in Canada. See the reasoning in
"Stall/Spring Training" (Sept. 10, 2001):
http://www.tc.gc.ca/aviation/syssafe/newsletters/letter/asl3_2001/english/279.htm
More on spin training in the current issue of Flying Magazine, on-line
in "Extra Maneuvers Training" (Nov. 6, 2002):
http://flyingmag.com/Training/ArticleDisplay.asp?ArticleID=94&page=2
A Google search finds more than 200 articles on "spin training",
should you wish to further pursue this avenue. A number of the
articles refer to loss of control incidents.
University of Illinois Aviation research on use of PC simulators for
unusual attitudes:
www.aviation.uiuc.edu/new/html/arl/TechPdf/01-6.pdf
and several articles on spatial disorientation:
://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&q=site:www.aviation.uiuc.edu+%22spatial+disorientation%22
William Kershner, who's both flight instructor and author of several
books, writes about unusual attitudes in several of his books,
including "The Instrument Flight Manual," Iowa State University Press,
1996. His emphasis for the new instrument pilot is on what's
most-likely to cause loss-of-control – and the need for a constant
instrument scan to avoid relying on a failed artificial horizon.
Aviation Week's on-line site has 38 references to "spatial
disorientation" (none for unusual attitudes) when a search is done at:
http://www.aviationnow.com/
The Flight Safety & Aerobatics website which says that:
"Keith Allen at Chuckanut Aviation said that he noticed an immediate
improvement in the assertiveness and confidence of student pilots who
took even one aerobatics ride."
http://www.iflysafely.net/aerobatics.html
A final resource with no specific references is Embry-Riddle
Aeronautical University's on-line library, which has a wide collection
of links to aviation resources. It includes a variety of hard-to-find
links such as the FAA Aviation Medicine reports and aerospace
publications :
http://amelia.db.erau.edu/gen/index.html
Google search strategy:
"pilot training" + "unusual attitudes"
"spatial disorientation"
"spin training"
If we've failed to meet your needs for research here, please let us
know before rating this answer.
Best regards,
Omnivorous-GA, PP-IR |
,
2 Comments
)