Defenses against loss of control in flight (LOC-I) figured prominently in recent conference presentations to pilot training specialists from major and regional airlines. A recurrent theme was how to apply lessons learned from transport airplane accidents that happened in unremarkable flight conditions with properly functioning autoflight systems.
During the World Aviation Training Conference and Trade Show (WATS 2010), presenters from two early-adopter airlines also outlined a related rationale for equipping fleets with dual head-up guidance systems (HGS) and mentioned plans for HGS-qualified first officers to land aircraft after approaches to Category III minimums. Others at the April gathering in Orlando, Florida, U.S., called for stronger emphasis on pilot understanding of aerodynamics and the adoption of updated stall recovery guidance from Airbus and Boeing Commercial Airplanes.
Several presenters concurred that despite measurable improvements since the 1980s, the LOC-I trend of…
