LOSS OF CONTROL

Practice upsets to improve your odds.

- Rob Mark

THE GREAT AMERICAN radio and television comedian George Burnsemerged in America during the vaudeville era and became known as a king of the one-liners delivered in his uniquely subtle deadpan style—and always with an El Producto cigar between the fingers of his left hand. Before his death in 1996 at the age of 100, Burns was asked for the secret of his long life. His response was simple and to the point: “Keep breathing.”

The strategy needed to stem the tide of loss-of-control accidents is almost as simple as Burns’ secret to long life. To avoid a loss of control, don’t exceed the wing’s critical angle of attack and avoid flying into weather that’s certain to cause spatial disorientation and an upset. A pilot should also maintain a keen sense of their situational awareness from before engine start until shutdown, as well as constantly strive to improve their risk-management skills.

While LOC-I is a popular acronym to assign as a cause, loss of control in flight is never the actual culprit behind an accident. It’s merely the inevitable, usually fatal result of some action that preceded it. LOC-I means the pilot and their aircraft find themselves operating outside the normal flight envelope with no idea how to return to straight-and-level flight.

Robert Wright of Wright Aviation Solutions confirms that assessment. “LOC-I is really a useless way to describe the root cause of accidents,” Wright says. “LOC-I is merely the final event in the accident chain that has a myriad of root causes. However, my own analysis shows that poor risk management may account for between two-thirds to three-quarters of GA fatal accidents.”