Industry Influencer: Jeremy Miller

During his career, he discovered a love for aerobatics, warbirds and staying alive. He began to focus on the relatively new concept of upset prevention and recovery (UPRT). A few people were dabbling with the idea, mostly in the airlines, but at the time nobody had specialised in the concept or applied it to training the general pilot population.
He clearly loves a challenge and doesn’t back down once it has been accepted. But that is a story for another day.

A new beginning

In 2020, a new business called ‘UPRT Australia’ was created by Miller and the team just as the world started learning to deal with a new enemy. Rather than copy an existing UPRT course structure (not that there were many around), the guys started from scratch. They researched best practises from all over the world and came up with their own unique formula for packaging and delivering one of the most potentially life-saving skills packages that aviators could possibly undertake.

Loss of control can happen to any pilot at any time. Hours in the logbook and types flown have little bearing on susceptibility. For some, it often happens at the end of a big night out, perhaps after demonstrating a mastery of drag to some new friends. That can be embarrassing, but not necessarily deadly.
But when it happens in flight, there won’t be a bouncer to guide you out of the building. Each year, loss of control in flight (LOC-I) has the highest fatality rate of any type of accident across all facets of aviation.

Some startling facts

The difference between those who recover without incident and those who don’t often comes down to how they react to the startle factor. UPRT’s training has a tight focus on the pilot’s response to an upset and teaches them to recover and react appropriately in the shortest possible time.

As well as dealing with LOC-I incidents, learning how to manage the startle factor can have massive benefits in many other areas of aviation, especially when time is not on your side. When things unexpectedly go wrong, you can quickly get on with addressing the problem before your pax even notice that something is amiss. This could include anything from engine failure, through to being temporarily uncertain of position (lost, in other words).

Situational awareness

Situation awareness (SA) is another critical skill that UPRT Australia focus on during their training. Too often, it is a skill that is never taught to new pilots in the first place. For example, when you are training in the circuit, at any given time could you accurately identify the call sign, location and intentions of every other aircraft in the circuit? Some pilots we have shared the circuit with could not even do that for their own aircraft. But that too is a story for another time.

But even for those pilots who have properly developed those crucial skills, unexpected incidents can cause a temporary loss of SA. Knowing how to quickly recognise and respond to this appropriately is another critical skill that UPRT training can provide.

Training has stalled

Every pilot is taught how to recover from a stall during their early training. Yet too many pilots still manage to drill unnecessary holes in the planet, commonly when turning from base to final.
“Two issues arise here” says Miller. “The first is that the pilot does not properly understand where the aerodynamic limits are for their particular situation, and therefore they allow a stall to occur.”

“The second issue is that they lose precious seconds when the startle factor temporarily paralyses the brain. At low altitude with the aircraft not performing as expected, there is not much time to diagnose the problem, formulate an appropriate response then correctly implement the solution and continue with their day as planned.”

Miller believes that basic pilot training should include all the stuff that his UPRT course covers. Aero Circus wholeheartedly agrees. Unfortunately, along with 50-year-old airframes commonly used for ab initio training, the syllabus is also a post-war relic. And we are talking World War 2, not the more recent ones that have been fought out on our TV or device screens.

Until the ab initio aviation syllabus catches up, it will be up to people like Miller and his team to save the rest of us from ourselves. We believe that he will be long remembered for his pioneering contribution to safer skies for all.