By Clarke 'Otter' McNeace, SME at Aviation Performance Solutions (APS)
Yes. Properly designed UPRT can expose pilots to the human factors associated with unexpected events—including startle, surprise, stress, and high workload. Evidence shows that properly delivered Upset Prevention and Recovery Training (UPRT) can improve pilot performance when the unexpected occurs in the real world.
One criticism of UPRT is that startle and surprise can't really be recreated in training: if pilots know they're participating in a training event, how can they truly be surprised?
However, knowing you are in training does not eliminate the possibility of being surprised and experiencing the same fear-induced responses, like the momentary feeling of incapacitation or becoming confused and not knowing what to do next. Of course, a training environment cannot reproduce every condition or consequence of a real-world airplane upset. But it can expose pilots to similar and relevant human-performance demands.
The more critical question is: does the training experience, through controlled startle and surprise events integrated with other components of instruction and practice, develop pilots’ ability to recognize, prioritize, and act effectively in the real world when the aircraft does something they did not expect?
A growing body of aviation human-factors research shows that training which includes unexpected and varied events does accomplish markedly increased pilot resilience and ability to respond calmly and correctly in a real-world event. This is accomplished not only through exposure to unexpected events, but also through a carefully designed curriculum that ingrains expert skills which are not fully developed in normal pilot licensing training.
Surprise occurs when what a pilot perceives does not match what they expected to occur. Startle is an involuntary reaction to a sudden, unexpected, and potentially threatening event. It involves a physiological response. Both responses can occur in a training environment when the conditions that produce them are present. When an event meaningfully violates the pilot's expectations, it can disrupt attention, delay diagnosis, create uncertainty, elevate workload, and interfere with the pilot's normal cognitive process.
Research with general aviation pilots in a fixed-base simulator demonstrated this effect. When an engine failure occurred unexpectedly rather than as an expected event, pilots showed greater heart-rate increases and pupil dilation, scanned fewer areas, and performed worse. The unexpected event produced measurable physiological, attentional, and performance effects consistent with startle. [1]
The fact that an event occurs during training does not make the resulting human response artificial.
No training scenario can duplicate every factor that may accompany an actual airplane upset: altitude, weather, turbulence, aircraft damage, system failures, passengers, operational pressure, fatigue, incomplete information, or the real consequences of an error.
Importantly, the objective is not to manufacture fear or convince a pilot that a training event is an actual emergency. Rather, the objective is to create relevant conditions in which the pilot must recognize an unexpected aircraft state and regain an organized, purposeful response despite the disruption caused by surprise, workload, stress, unfamiliar attitudes, or conflicting expectations..
UPRT does not make pilots immune to startle or surprise. It seeks to habituate an effective trained path back to effective action after startle or surprise disrupts normal processing. It provides access to information and skills that could otherwise be denied by the startle response.
This concept is reflected in established UPRT guidance. FAA Advisory Circular 120-111, Upset Prevention and Recovery Training, describes a progressive training methodology intended to help pilots recognize developing flightpath divergence, respond appropriately in situations of surprise or startle, and recover effectively when required. [2]
The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) goes further in its Manual on Aeroplane Upset Prevention and Recovery Training (Doc 10011). ICAO specifically identifies startle and stress response as a UPRT training element and says upset training should strive to incorporate the unexpectedness pilots will experience in real-world application. [3]
Effective UPRT develops a pilot's ability to recognize unintended aircraft-state divergence, prioritize aircraft control and flight path, assess attitude and energy using reliable cues, apply appropriate control inputs, and stabilize the aircraft before secondary problems consume attention.
That requires more than memorizing a maneuver.
In a 2017 peer-reviewed Human Factors paper, Annemarie Landman and colleagues developed a conceptual model of how startle and surprise affect pilot performance during unexpected events. Their work describes how pilots use mental “frames” to interpret what is happening. When an event contradicts the expected frame, the pilot has to recognize the mismatch and develop a more accurate understanding of the situation while startle, stress, and time pressure may interfere with that process. [4]
Training can strengthen a pilot's ability to make that transition from the expected situation to the one actually unfolding. Exposure to varied aircraft states and scenarios broadens experience, strengthens recognition of relevant cues, and develops responses that do not depend on seeing exactly the same event before.
The goal is not simply to perform a maneuver that was taught, but to accurately assess an unfamiliar situation and apply the appropriate principles—a more flexible and adaptable expertise that can be brought to situations the pilot has never encountered before.
Predictable repetition has an important role in training. But predictable repetition alone is not complete preparation for an event that, by definition, is unforeseen or unexpected.
A 2018 peer-reviewed Human Factors study by Landman and colleagues tested this directly. Twenty pilots practiced responses to aircraft controllability problems in a simulator. One group encountered the problems with greater variability and unpredictability, while the control group practiced the same failures in a highly predictable and consistent manner.
After training, the pilots were confronted with a surprise scenario in which they had to apply what they had learned.
The pilots exposed to variable and unpredictable training demonstrated superior understanding and performance in the surprise test. The researchers concluded that organizing pilot training in a more unpredictable and variable way improved transfer of training to unexpected situations in flight. [5]
This is important because the objective was not simply to make pilots more comfortable with being surprised. The training helped them apply learned knowledge and skills when confronted with a demanding, partly novel event they had not been told to expect.
Research conducted at APS with United Aviate Academy students provides an additional example directly involving UPRT.
In the multi-year study, student pilots were evaluated before and after completing APS's integrated UPRT program. Pilots were confronted with a surprise airplane upset scenario to assess their ability to recognize and recover from an unexpected aircraft state.
Before UPRT, 16.4% successfully recovered. After UPRT, 86.6% successfully recovered—a 427% improvement in successful recovery performance.
Importantly, the post-training evaluation was not simply a request to repeat a recovery maneuver exactly as it had been practiced. Pilots had to apply competencies developed during UPRT when confronted with an unexpected upset of a completely different type they had not experienced before. [6]
That distinction goes directly to the question of whether pilots can be prepared for surprise.
The pilot does not need to have seen the exact event before. Effective training develops transferable recognition, decision-making, and aircraft-control competencies that can be applied even when the next event does not look exactly like the training exercise.
Even when they know they are in a training scenario, pilots still experience physiological effects of stress.
The U.S. Army Aeromedical Research Laboratory partnered with APS to collect physiological data from Army pilots participating in APS fixed-wing UPRT. Participants completed five flights involving emergency scenarios and varied aircraft attitudes while researchers monitored physiological measures.
Researchers found that average heart-rate variability decreased significantly as G-force increased during the UPRT flights. The Army reported the findings in the context of understanding physiological changes associated with demanding flight conditions and the effects of stress and workload on aviators. [7]
The finding does not mean a UPRT flight perfectly recreates the physiological experience of every operational upset.
It demonstrates something more specific: actual UPRT can expose pilots to measurable physiological responses associated with demanding, high-workload flying while they are simultaneously required to apply knowledge and aircraft-control skills.
No single training platform can reproduce every dimension of an unexpected operational event. This is why effective UPRT uses different platforms for what each does best.
Academic instruction develops the conceptual understanding and mental models pilots need to interpret unfamiliar aircraft states.
Simulation introduces complex operational scenarios involving systems, weather, crew coordination, workload, decision-making, and carefully controlled unpredictability.
On-aircraft training adds actual aircraft motion, all-attitude orientation, aerodynamic response, physical control forces, and G-loading while pilots develop and apply upset prevention and recovery competencies.
While the platforms are not meant to imitate reality in every respect, integrating their strengths allows pilots to progressively build knowledge, skills, experience, and transferable responses.
Introducing startle, surprise, stress, and unpredictability is only one aspect of UPRT. More surprise does not mean better training. UPRT cannot make the unexpected predictable, but it can make pilots far more prepared to meet it.
Here is where proficiency deepens into expertise: not simply knowing the right response, but being able to recognize what matters and apply the right knowledge and skills when the situation is unfamiliar, demanding, and unexpected.
For the complete evidence chain on UPRT—including demonstrated recovery performance, airline operational data, physiology, human factors, and global guidance—read [Does Upset Training Work? The Evidence for UPRT].
[1] Kinney, L., & O'Hare, D. (2020). “Responding to an Unexpected In-Flight Event: Physiological Arousal, Information Processing, and Performance.” Human Factors, 62(5), 737–750. DOI: 10.1177/0018720819854830.
View study on PubMed
[2] Federal Aviation Administration. Advisory Circular 120-111, Upset Prevention and Recovery Training, Change 1. The FAA describes a progressive UPRT methodology designed to prepare pilots to recognize unexpected flightpath divergences and respond appropriately to surprise or startle.
FAA AC 120-111
[3] International Civil Aviation Organization. Manual on Aeroplane Upset Prevention and Recovery Training (Doc 10011). ICAO identifies startle and stress response as UPRT training elements and calls for upset training to incorporate unexpectedness.
ICAO Doc 10011
[4] Landman, A., Groen, E. L., van Paassen, M. M., Bronkhorst, A. W., & Mulder, M. (2017). “Dealing With Unexpected Events on the Flight Deck: A Conceptual Model of Startle and Surprise.” Human Factors, 59(8), 1161–1172. DOI: 10.1177/0018720817723428.
Read full study through NIH/PMC
[5] Landman, A., van Oorschot, P., van Paassen, M. M., Groen, E. L., Bronkhorst, A. W., & Mulder, M. (2018). “Training Pilots for Unexpected Events: A Simulator Study on the Advantage of Unpredictable and Variable Scenarios.” Human Factors, 60(6), 793–805. DOI: 10.1177/0018720818779928.
Read full study through NIH/PMC
[6] Aviation International News (2025). “Upset Prevention Training Producing Big Results at United Aviate.” Reports the results of the United Aviate Academy UPRT evaluation, including the more-than-400% improvement in student performance.
Read the AIN report
[7] Wilkins, J., & Feltman, K., U.S. Army Aeromedical Research Laboratory (2024). “Monitoring Army Aviators In-Flight: Heart Rate Variability during Extreme Maneuvering.” U.S. Army. Reports physiological measurements collected from Army aviators during APS fixed-wing UPRT.
Read the U.S. Army report