More than 40% of general aviation fatal accidents occur because pilots lose
control of their planes.
Choreo Electronics aims to reduce the number of loss-of-control accidents across the general aviation fleet with its pilot training tool, FlightCoach.
And company officials are looking for pilots to help them refine the technology by participating in beta testing.
According to Rudy Moore, founder of Choreo Electronics, he’s been testing FlightCoach for about two months, but would like to get 100 pilots to participate in the beta testing.
FlightCoach helps pilots become better at using their own senses to see and avoid potentially dangerous situations, according to Moore. The learning aid teaches pilots to innately recognize the sounds of slow flight and the feeling of uncoordinated flight by providing clear, yet unobtrusive, visual and audio indications.
“We are thrilled at the progress made in the last year,” Moore said. “Beta testing is the next step in our prototype becoming a way to improve safety across all of general aviation.”
FlightCoach is inexpensive, quick to setup, and easily portable from one airplane to another. The device clips to a visor or other location in a cockpit and monitors flight conditions without the need of any external sensors, Moore explained.
As their skills develop, pilots can preempt FlightCoach feedback by double-tapping the device to acknowledge slow flight or signal that they are about to slip or skid the airplane. A simple scoring system incentivizes and tracks improvement over time.
Interested pilots can sign up for the beta-test at ChoreoElectronics.com.
Choreo Electronics is a start-up focused on bringing aviation safety equipment to market. FlightCoach device won seed funding in the 2019 Experimental Aviation Association Founders’ Innovation Prize.
Yes many engine outs seem to end badly for no obvious reason except pilots don’t fly the plane well in that part of the envelope under stress. You would think that every landing is practice at having a stable approach at idle power. Yet pilots keep spinning in when they are very close to having a safe forced landing. My guess is each one is trying to stretch the glide or turning to avoid an obstacles too aggressively but without being in the seat it is just a guess. My preparation is to pre-brief myself before takeoff that if the engine stops the goal is to land the plane at lowest airspeed wherever it needs to go at the last 200 ft of altitude. The time to pick the area of safest landing is when you are at altitude, once you are at 200′ it is time to fly the plane in a stable approach until you stop. Using this device in power off slow flight at altitude might help us learn the limits of what we can do in that part of the envelope.
I think I’d like to fly with this device for a while because it would “nudge” me when I am inadvertently moving into slip/skid/uncoordinated flight regimes. This would allow me to better recognize them, and help me train myself to better avoid them.
Nobody is at 100% absolutely all the time and absolutely without exception. That’s why we have seatbelts in cars, harnesses in airplanes, and ELTs, all “just in case”. Think of this device as an unpaid and impartial CFI which will call attention to any bad habits or sloppiness that could develop over time, and it will call attention to them before the situation gets out of hand and shows up in tomorrow’s newspaper. (Besides, if you goof up, it isn’t going to think to itself “What a doofus this guy is!” or talk about you later.)
This thing can help us IMPROVE our stick and rudder skills, and if it annoys you, it can be turned off or you can scream profanities at it to your heart’s content, unlike a human CFI, who probably would take exception to being treated that way.
The best and perhaps the only way to get “better at using their own senses to see and avoid potentially dangerous situations” is to get rid of goofy technology like this thing, put oneself in a Cub or Champ, and get one’s eyeballs outside. More technology is not the answer to every challenge life has to offer.
My thoughts exactly…..thumbs up!
Spot On Comment
My 172 is equipped from the factory with devices that already warn me of these things. What happened to good ol stick and rudder skills?
Yet loss of control remains a significant killer of pilots, so obviously we can do better.
Yes, it’s interesting that the NTSB consistently reports “System Malfunction – Powerplant” as in the top three “defining events” for accidents… and sometimes and the number one defining event (aka “root cause”) for an accident. Typically, the NTSB accident reports for engine failures cite loss of control as the nail in the coffin. I’ll go out on a limb and suggest that most pilots are competent in only a very tiny part of the total operational volume for the aircraft flown.