From the UK via Australia: What can glider pilots teach the airline industry?

As both an airline pilot and a glider pilot, I agree completely with the article at the top of this thread. Government agencies around the world are identifying this threat to aviation safety, and are already requiring airlines to find solutions. Some solutions are better than others.

During my last recurrent simulator session, we disconnected the auto throttles and allowed the airspeed to decay until the stick-shaker (stall warning) activated. We then disconnected the autopilot and hand flew the airplane through the standard recovery procedure. Performing this maneuver in the simulator was the FAA-approved answer to the problem of degraded pilot skills.. And in my opinion, it was completely inadequate.

While I'm based in the USA, I live and fly gliders in France. My club, in Fayence, is developing a program for airline pilots to get the additional training this article recommends. The club will work directly with participating airlines to send their pilots to spend a week with us, and complete a program that will be approved by both the participating airline and the government agency.

As it looks right now, the program will have the following features:

1. A day of ground school where we review aerodynamic principles. While we've all learned the basics, for some it has been decades since we've thought about them in depth.

2. Day one in the glider would be a day to get comfortable in the seat. Many airline pilots haven't used the rudder to coordinate flight in decades - in fact, airline pilots only use the rudder to uncoordinated flight to line the plane up with the runway for takeoff and landing. During all other phases of flight, yaw-dampers coordinate the rudder for us.

3. Day two will be the maneuvers day, with slow flight, steep turns, stalls, spins, and recovery from unusual attitudes, including inverted unusual attitudes.

4. The final day will be in close proximity to terrain. Airliners have Ground Proximity Warning Systems that warn us of approaching terrain, and most airline pilots would be very uncomfortable with intentionally approaching a ridge the way glider pilots routinely do. We would hear the "WHOOP-WHOOP PULL UP!" warning in our heads as we have heard so many times in the simulator. A day on the ridge and a flight deeper into the mountains for an airline pilot would be invaluable.

I'm excited to be a part of this program; not only for helping improve the industry's safety, but also to share my passion of soaring with my colleagues.

Chris Fleming