Upon his retirement as a non-routine flight operations captain from a fractional operator in 2015, Dr. Veillette had accumulated more than 20,000 hours of flight experience in 240 types of aircraft—including balloons, rotorcraft, sea plans, glides, war birds, supersonic jets and large commercial transports. He is an adjunct professor at Utah Valley University. In June 2023, he won the prestigious Bill Gunston Technology Writer of the Year Award.
Managing an aircraft flight path, along with its energy level, is a basic piloting responsibility. The professional pilot community has been told for decades about the importance of the stabilized approach. It has been a consistent message from aviation safety organizations around the world. And yet the problem of unstabilized approaches continues.
The consensus among industry contributors to an FAA Advisory Circular is that training should focus on preventing upsets rather than waiting to recover from one.
How best to train pilots to maintain command of an aircraft throughout its entire maneuvering envelope, in all weather conditions, and when subjected to equipment malfunctions? Using simulators is the most logical, and proven, response. But appropriate simulators aren't always available.
