Video: Avoiding Loss of Control with Expanded Envelope Exercises

[Ed_Wischmeyer]

Matt Thurber, editor in chief of Aviation International News, flew E3 with me in the RV-9A a few months back. He was impressed with the RV-9A as we did exercises that will expand a pilot's comfort zone, making them more cognitively available to avoid loss of control.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70EMcCCpOsk

E3 is not a commercial venture, and will not be. Instead, I'm looking to partner with aviation organizations who want to adapt, use, and expand it.

My four minutes, six seconds of fame...

[SmilingJack]

Great video Ed. I have been fortunate to be able to attend upset recovery in the airplane and sim. The E3 looks like a good tool.

[Onewinglo]

Thanks for taking the time and effort to post this. I love the concept.

[N941WR]

Well done Ed.

It would be good in this day an age when many pilots believe a full stall leads to death.

[Schooner69]

I'm sure these exercises will be of much benefit to many pilots. It's unfortunate that all pilots can't be exposed to ten hours of aerobatic instruction...

[Ed_Wischmeyer]

Originally Posted by Schooner69

I'm sure these exercises will be of much benefit to many pilots. It's unfortunate that all pilots can't be exposed to ten hours of aerobatic instruction...

Agreed, but here's the fooler... The Expanded Envelope Exercises teach things that aerobatics do not. This was confirmed by an E3 subject pilot who flies intermediate/advanced competition pilots, was an F-16 test pilot and is now a GA and bizjet test pilot/DER.

[jliltd]

Ed,

Nice video. I have always thought that the dutch roll / nose on point exercise is one of the most beneficial skills there is. Especially for getting a new taildragger student up to speed about how they need to separate the yaw and roll axes for landing. Get them good at dutch rolls in the practice area and suddenly their landings (and confidence) improves greatly. I haven't seen the exercise lining up with the edges and center of the runway on final before. That looks like a great way to polish directional control and cross-wind skills more rapidly than multiple standard approaches in the pattern.

Jim

[Schooner69]

"The Expanded Envelope Exercises teach things that aerobatics do not"

Ed: Quite possibly so; however, I didn't see anything new in the video as shown. (I have a similar background as your E3 subject pilot although not on as new equipment (;>0) T-33, F-86, F-5, Transport Canada Flight Examiner, Corporate Aviation.)

If those exercises keep people from becoming statistics, all the better...

John

[andrewtac]

Originally Posted by Ed_Wischmeyer

Agreed, but here's the fooler... The Expanded Envelope Exercises teach things that aerobatics do not. This was confirmed by an E3 subject pilot who flies intermediate/advanced competition pilots, was an F-16 test pilot and is now a GA and bizjet test pilot/DER.

What things? Besides the side step maneuver.

[Ed_Wischmeyer]

In the hopes of keeping this discussion on topic about E3 and not drifting into what aerobatics teaches you? and I?ve flown aerobatics in Citabrias, Decathlons, Great Lakes, my three short wing RVs and, with an instructor, in Pitts S-2C, Super Chipmunk, Europa, Yak52, Skybolt, and probably a few more. And I?ve taught basic aerobatics?

So what?s different about E3?
* E3 can be flown in your own, non-aerobatic airplane, so you train in what you fly every day. Granted, this is a non-issue for the short wing RVs, but even so, all of E3 is flown at less than 60? bank, 30? pitch, and 2 G. And loss of control statistics show lots of non-aerobatic airplanes;
* No parachutes, no high G maneuvers for those who are queasy, timid, less adventurous, or, like me, orthopedically limited to 2 Gs. This is another reason E3 is more accessible than aerobatics. And if you don?t have access to aerobatic instruction, you won?t learn those lessons;
* Aerobatics tend to preserve smash (airspeed) so that one maneuver can flow into the next. For example, aerobatic spins recover on the down line (vertically) to rebuild speed. E3 comprises primarily low speed exercises that aerobatics doesn?t do much;
* Some of E3 recreates accident scenarios. Not shown in the video was that the runway alignment exercise starts with a deliberate runway overshoot. For folks who have had it beaten into them that Thou Shalt Not Overshoot Centerline, this is a revelation! No more need to tighten up the turn, just because;
* Not shown in the video was the slow Dutch rolls, with a 1?/second roll rate going in and coming out. Not one person has been able to do it successfully on the first try, none! The slowest roll rates I?ve seen on the first attempt have been on the order of 3?/second. Go try it and see how you do, rolling in till you run out of rudder, then rolling back the other way at 1?/second. And this roll rate is substantially less than the super, super slow roll that used to be my specialty in Decathlons;
* E3 has variety of stalls with recoveries in turns, not shown in the video;
* E3 demonstrates low speed spirals, different from IFR high speed spirals. There is a growing groundswell in the GA safety community that realizes that stall/spin is an over-used term in light airplane accident probable causes, and E3 demonstrates why;
* The 60/90 turns, not shown all that well in the video, are at least as fun, with fast changing centers of attention, and stressful as any aerobatics I?ve flown. Everybody loves them, and they?re flown at final approach speed and less than 2 Gs.

Counting the variations, E3 is about 100 exercises. The background research by now is probably close to 100 pages, including an analysis of 551 NTSB reports on RV series airplanes plus another analysis of an additional year?s worth of all EAB accidents, plus? you get the idea. E3 didn?t just pop up out of nowhere.

Standing invitation: C?mon down to Savannah and fly E3 with me, then make up your own mind on how much you learned or didn?t. Bring your own plane ? Cessna, Piper, Mooney, RV, whatever. So far, E3 has been flown in a dozen kinds of airplane, almost all of them non-aerobatic.

If there are any more questions or comments, please PM me. I?m not budgeting much more time to this thread.