Aviation Performance Solutions has introduced an integrated spatial disorientation awareness and training programme at NBAA-BACE in Las Vegas, combining classroom instruction, virtual-reality scenarios, in-aircraft demonstrations and structured debriefs. The programme is designed to help pilots recognise unreliable sensory perceptions, reject misleading cues and maintain control using dependable, cross-checked flight information. APS plans to seek approval for the course under its FAA Part 141 certificate.
The training follows an “Experience, Recognise, Reject, Recover” progression. Current VR scenarios include black-hole night approaches, narrow- and wide-runway illusions, and flight in cloud and heavy snow. Controlled aircraft exercises demonstrate the leans and graveyard-spiral effects, providing motion and vestibular cues that fixed-seat VR cannot reproduce.
APS is coordinating the proposed course with the FAA as an Appendix K Special Operations Course. It remains subject to agency review and approval and is not yet an FAA-approved standalone course. The programme expands spatial-disorientation content already incorporated into APS upset-prevention and recovery training and is structured around the theoretical and practical methods recommended in FAA Information for Operators 26003.
Vice president of flight operations Norm “DQ” Dequier leads the programme. During NBAA-BACE, APS is offering guided ride-alongs in its Learjet VR simulation, depicting a nighttime departure in instrument meteorological conditions.