By 2030, United Airlines plans to hire at least 10,000 pilots to both fill retirement vacancies and to fly its additional 500+ new aircraft expected to be online by that date. A bold plan like this requires bold execution. United opened United Aviate Academy (UAA) in December 2021 with the goal of training half of those needed pilots at a rate of 500 a year to maintain a strong pipeline of qualified aviators for years to come. United is the only major U.S. airline to own a flight training school. (more…)

The law of primacy states how we first learn to perform a skill will be the way we best remember how to execute that skill, regardless of whether what we learned was correct or not. It is hard to unlearn what we were first taught and relearn how to perform a skill a new way. For flight instruction, it is imperative we teach and learn skills properly and completely the first time to avoid mistakes in the flight deck. (more…)

Despite affordable rotorcraft simulator solutions on the market today, many helicopter pilots learn to fly exclusively in the helicopter. However, for obvious safety reasons, aircraft-only training does not allow for realistic simulated emergencies. Instead, pilots simulate emergency procedures in the aircraft by talking through the steps and touching switches rather than actuating them. They are also not experiencing or seeing realistic cues present in a true emergency. Unfortunately, when an emergency occurs, the transfer of knowledge to a real response does not fully transfer and accidents are not avoided. (more…)

Frasca’s deliveries of the U.S. Navy’s Leonardo TH-73A Advanced Helicopter Training System are on time with all eight contracted new flight training devices (FTDs) delivered, installed, and hard at work.

In April 2021, Frasca was named subcontractor for the Navy’s TH-73A Aircrew Training Services (ATS) contract. FlightSafety Defense won the contract award to provide Contractor Instructional Services (CIS) and availability on 18 Frasca-designed and manufactured Level 6 and Level 7 Flight Training Devices (FTDs). FlightSafety subcontracted with Frasca to install 8 new TH-73 FTDs and modify the 10 existing TH-57B/C FTDs to reflect the new Navy aircraft. (more…)