Researchers at the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Purdue University are investigating the causes of inflight loss of control accidents (LOC-I).
LOC-I means that a pilot was unable to maintain control of the aircraft in flight, resulting in an unrecoverable deviation from the intended flight path. Inadvertent means that the LOC-I was not intentional (such as an intentional stall during training), the researchers explain.
To help with their research, they are asking general aviation pilots who have experienced or prevented an inadvertent loss of control to fill out a survey.
“The responses from the survey may help reduce general aviation loss of control accidents,” says Neelakshi Majumdar, a PhD student who is conducting the research with Professor Karen Marais.
The study, funded by the FAA, is a part of the Safety Analysis and General Aviation (SAGA) research project under Partnership to Enhance General Aviation Safety, Accessibility, and Sustainability (PEGASAS) Center of Excellence.
“The overall goal of this study is to develop focused training methods that could help pilots to avoid LOC-I accidents,” the researchers say.
The survey asks questions about your inadvertent LOC-I experiences and the training you received to avoid or recover from LOC-I. Pilots will also be asked a few demographic questions. All responses are anonymous.
The survey should take approximately 20 to 50 minutes to complete, depending on how many LOC-I experiences you choose to share.
You can find the survey here.
Poor piloting techniques usually result on LOC 1 type departures and flight crashes. Basic flying skills need to be of high order when dealing with combinations of slower speeds, cross control movements, excessive bank angles, and poor pitch controls, like turning into the final approach on a hot day with orographic wind changes and mild to moderate turbulence. The inexperienced pilot will naturally jerk the controls around, with excessive inputs, because they are not taught the specific techniques required to maintain control at fringe lift conditions. This is one situation where each pilot needs to fly like a “fighter pilot”.
My initial reaction was also, “Uhhh… ‘unrecoverable LOCs’ are generally fatal.” Perhaps the wording of the survey description might be improved?
That was my exact thought.
I don’t know anyone that has recovered after an inadvertent loss of control. Training and instruction for it is extremely hard to replicate.
Heck Purdue, just email the survey to your flight program alumni. Oh wait, that would be ERAU grads. Never mind.
I’ve experienced two unintended LOC events in ten years and 1,200 hours. Both were in IMC, one was a minor deviation as Pilot Flying, and the other let’s say was a “moderate” deviation where I had to intervene while giving CFII instruction. I will not participate in survey however since by virtue of the fact that I’m able to write this, I was able to recover safely. May I suggest the geniuses at Purdue retain a good Medium if they want a good response on their survey as an “unrecoverable” LOC is almost always fatal.
Hello @Tony B,
The unintended LOC events that you have mentioned are very useful for our research since we are also studying the events where the pilot was able to safely recover from a potential LOC. I would greatly appreciate it if you could participate in the survey and share your experiences.
Thank you!
Neelakshi
Potential inadvertent loss of control in IMC is usually combined with vertigo. It is had to give someone vertigo that knows it is coming.
The actions needed to get vertigo involve inadvertent IIMC with the aircraft in other than level, accelerated, or decelerated flight, all while the pilot looking at something other than the attitude indicator anything which would give an indication of where the horizon is. This still might not bring on vertigo.
To bring on vertigo the pilot must move his head while simultaneously changing the attitude and or speed of the aircraft without reference to the horizon.
Once the pilot has vertigo, he should have a feeling of spinning in his head due to the fluid in the inner ear.
Under this condition the pilot will likely loss the ability to control the aircraft, and if control is lost, the ability to recover is unlikely.
In most of these cases where the control is lost is when the pilot attempts a turn. This is the worse thing any pilot regardless of experience could do if they go inadvertent IMC. They will most likely crash.
A 180 out of the clouds is the answer given when I ask pilots what they should do if they go IIMC. It is a real killer.
What is needed is a method to ‘reset’ the inner ear. If the pilot inadvertently brings on vertigo. The only method I’ve found is moving the head in a ‘yes/no’ while resettling the butt in the seat all while looking at the attitude indicator in a level non accelerated or decelerated condition. It could take up to a minute to ‘reset’ the bodies acceptance that the attitude indicator is what is real.
The plane must remain as level as possible without acceleration or deceleration to ‘reset’ the brains visual and physical cues.
The survey includes potential LOC-I that were prevented or recovered from.
I would suspect they will have a very small sample size to pull from.
“LOC-I means that a pilot was unable to maintain control of the aircraft in flight, resulting in an unrecoverable deviation from the intended flight path.” – Such an event is almost always followed by impact with terrain with loss of life.
I have had a LOC event after hitting some clear air turbulence while cruising at 1000 AGL in an antique I was delivering to its new owner but was able to recover it at about 300 to 400 AGL. Since I was able to recover, it is not an event Purdue wishes to record.
Hello @BillR. Since we are interested in partial LOC experiences and those where you have prevented a potential LOC, your case is very much applicable and valuable for our study. Please feel free to take the survey and share your experience.
Thank you!
Neelakshi
You must have learnt how to anticipate, and deal with stalls and recoveries at low altitude. Terrain characteristics are a major part of the learning process.
My Uncle Frank, who soloed an Alexander Eagle Rock and earned his Private Certificate in 1931, was still driving and flying at the age of 95. He passed away at the age of 97. He could never understand how anyone could “lose control”, whether it be in a car or aircraft. Whenever he heard a siren in the distance, he would say, “Someone else lost control!”
With experience, a pilot learns to add “instinctive’ responses to his method of flying. This is very useful when carrying out an approach and landing in mountainous terrain, with limited visibility, and compounded with the need to create your instinctive navigating skill without known lead in features.