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Anyone who has been to an air show and witnessed the dizzying array of aerobatic maneuvers has probably walked away with two impressions: it looks extremely fun and it looks extremely dangerous. The fun part is a no-brainer, but what seem like maneuvers that risk life and limb can actually serve as safety maneuvers that help pilots regain control of an upset aircraft. Whether due mechanical failure, turbulence or pilot error, any aircraft can end up in an “unusual attitude”, meaning that it can suddenly dive, turn upside down or find itself in a variety of other compromising positions that require immediate correction. In these situations, pilots that possess aerobatic training are often in better position than pilots possessing standard emergency maneuver training for a variety of reasons.

The first reason is that aerobatic training supplies pilots with a greater scientific understanding of upset recovery techniques, including the physiological effects of aerobatics and the aerodynamic knowledge necessary for a complete understanding of aircraft performance, structural limitations, V-speeds and more.

With increased understanding of how to deal with upset recovery situations comes increased confidence, which is the second advantage of receiving aerobatic training. Pilots that have never experienced “unusual attitude” situations in a training setting can be prone to panic or intuitive reactions that threaten an airplane’s structural integrity, which may lead to ground impact.

Therefore, a third reason why aerobatic training is important is that it supplies pilots with advanced motor skills for dealing with upset recovery situations. While it doesn’t require extensive aerobatic training to recover from standard wake turbulence encounters, pilots with aerobatic training are more apt to react instinctively, resulting in less altitude loss, which is especially important when wake turbulence is just one factor in a larger unusual attitude situation.

Fourth, one of the greatest keys to correcting an extreme unusual attitude situation is identifying the nearest horizon, which allows the pilot to roll in the shortest direction to rectify the aircraft. However, pilots without aerobatic training take longer to identify the horizon, resulting in altitude loss from either poor response time or inappropriate intuitive recovery actions, such as pulling the nose down through the vertical and back up to the horizon.

Fifth, just as instinctively knowing how to place the horizon is critical for recovering from extreme unusual attitude situations, developing a “kinesthetic feel” for what varying levels of G-forces indicate about an aircraft’s flight can be essential to avoiding such situations in the first place, especially since most aircraft don’t have G meters. Aerobatic training teaches pilots how to sense when the plane is approaching the stall and exactly how to un-stall the wings without overcompensating and causing further unusual attitude problems.

While aerobatics isn’t the crux of upset recovery training, learning such maneuvers as the aileron roll, inside loop, Cuban 8, split “S”, hammerhead and Immelman can build a pilots’ confidence and teach them how to deal with upset attitude situations in the most effective way possible. Learning aerobatics can mean that you’ll never be afraid of stalls, rolls, or even being upside down in an airplane again.