By Beth E. Stanton, EAA 1076326
This story first appeared in the November 2019 issue of EAA Sport Aviation.
Loss of control (LOC) is the largest cause of fatal general aviation accidents. The EAA Founder’s Innovation Prize is working to find a solution to reduce LOC accidents. Now through its fourth year, the Founder’s Innovation Prize, presented by Airbus, welcomes technology or training improvements that may be implemented easily and inexpensively throughout the entire GA fleet.
On July 23, at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2019, five finalists chosen from 33 entrants presented their projects to a panel of judges at Theater in the Woods.
“EAA has long been committed to the safety of our community,” said emcee Heather Penney, EAA 1266991 and senior resident fellow at the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. “This program represents the long-standing commitment to safety and, importantly, leveraging the creativity, the experience, the capability, and the expertise of our membership to solve the problems that we all face in reducing loss-of-control accidents.”
Judges included EAA board member and former space shuttle commander Charlie Precourt, EAA Lifetime 150237; Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University professor Pat Anderson, EAA 562356; former NTSB investigator Gregory Feith, EAA 546383; civilian test pilot Dave Morss, EAA 133735; and Van’s Aircraft founder Dick VanGrunsven, EAA Lifetime 3204.
First Place, $25,000 Prize
BuzzBall, Ethan Brodsky, EAA 1068330
Ethan believes a pilot’s sense of touch is underused.
“The visual system is already busy when you’re flying,” he said. “It’s important to have your eyes outside when you’re maneuvering in the pattern.”
BuzzBall senses the turn coordinator ball position and alerts a pilot of uncoordinated flight. One of two buzzers in a seat cushion is activated, indicating which rudder pedal to step on to regain coordinated flight. The tactile feedback from BuzzBall increases the ability to recognize and correct uncoordinated flight and can help train pilots to maintain coordination unconsciously.
“Critical feedback should be conveyed actively, not passively, and warnings need to break through distraction and mental clutter,” Ethan said.
Ethan was a 2017 Founder’s Innovation Prize finalist and has since made changes in hardware, software, and enclosure. He also added a spin recovery mode and has completed 150 hours of testing. BuzzBall electronics are built on the Arduino platform, and the seat cushion uses an automotive lane departure warning system powered by a haptic seat motor. It is low cost, it installs easily, and the software code is available for download on Bitbucket.
For more on Ethan Brodsky and BuzzBall, check out his guest appearance on EAA’s The Green Dot podcast.
Second Place, $10,000 Prize
Situational Awareness Trainer, Rudy Moore, EAA 673269
During Rudy’s first flight lessons, his instructor told him to listen to sounds in the cockpit. A drop in wind and engine noise indicated entering into a slow flight regime. Rudy’s “aha” moment was noticing the aircraft carbon monoxide sensor.
“Why couldn’t we have a solution like that that measured sound?” he asked.
The Situational Awareness Trainer has a sound sensor and bar graphs that display wind and engine noise and warn the pilot when wind is reaching predetermined low levels.
“The novelty of this invention is cabin sound detection,” Rudy said. “There is a machine learning process where it can be learned for any airplane after doing some basic calibration.”
An accelerometer detects uncoordinated flight and sounds an alarm.
The self-contained portable device prototype uses off-the-shelf components and costs about $50. Rudy is working to get the price down to $12.
Third Place, $5,000 Prize
FeelFlight Grip, Jack Hohner, EAA 170715
Jack’s primary flight instructor drilled him to watch his airspeed and the turn coordinator ball.
“They are two of the most important things to avoid loss of control,” he said.
FeelFlight Grip is a tactile, visual, and audio feedback device. Three actuators on the grip pulse against the ring, middle, and index fingers with angle of attack (AOA) inclination information for the best rate of climb, best angle of climb, and just above stall, respectively. Two additional actuators on either side of the grip pulse turn coordinator input, contacting the right and left lower part of the index finger and thumb.
Three AOA LED lights mounted in the panel signal inclination, and an audio tone warns before stall. According to Jack, the significant innovation is inclusion of the tactile element.
“All three modalities are synchronized,” he said. “If they signal the pilot at the same time, the sum is more than the parts and multiplies the response that the pilot is getting.”
Other Finalists
Enhanced Scenario-Based Training, Carl Lawrence, EAA 666030
The cerebellum is the unconscious portion of the brain with lightning-fast reactions that may be trained through repetition. Carl compared Patty Wagstaff and Sean D. Tucker to black belt martial artists with actions trained through muscle memory.
“The question then becomes: How can you train the average pilot’s cerebellum to react like Patty’s and Sean’s?” he asked.
Enhanced Scenario-Based Training would imprint the cerebellum with muscle memory. The methodology uses GA aircraft with an instructor at a safe altitude. The pilot trains in loss-of-control situations using virtual reality. Components include a Vive system, Oculus Rift headset, computer, and expandable scenario library. It is estimated to cost about $1,500.
“Loss-of-control training experience stays with a pilot, no matter what aircraft they fly in and how it’s equipped,” Carl said.
Reducing Loss-of-Control Accidents to Keep Our Friends Alive, Ed Wischmeyer, EAA 18879
Ed believes that loss of control results from “cognitive unavailability” — a pilot not processing cues while flying outside their comfortable flight envelope. His solution is to expand a pilot’s personal comfort zone and flight envelope.
In expanded envelope exercises (E3), precursors to loss of control — such as high workload, high stress, high sensory input, precision, and full control deflection — are practiced. E3 is different from upset recovery training conducted in aerobatic-capable aircraft.
“You want to let the pilot train in their own familiar everyday airplane,” Ed said.
E3 has been tested in transition training and flight reviews with benefits observed after just one hour. A couple dozen subject pilots are slated to further explore the effectiveness of E3 this fall at Utah Valley University.
2020 Grand Championship
Finalists and honorable mention contestants from prior Founder’s Innovation Prize competitions are eligible to compete in the 2020 Founder’s Innovation Prize Grand Championship. The goal of the championship is to further the progress and encourage the strongest entries from the last four years to continue to develop their ideas into real-world solutions.
“What is really going to be interesting is to see going back to the first year, how far many have gone with their entries,” Charlie said.
This year’s first- and third-place winners, Ethan and Jack, were fourth-place finalists in 2017 and 2018, respectively.
“Ethan had taken some criticism from us about BuzzBall from the first time and really went with it,” Charlie said. “What was really impressive was how well he knew what he was doing with his development. Anybody can go get this off the open market and for 50 bucks have it in their airplane. It’s an enhancement that could be used in the training side, or on the warning side, or both.”
Jack had a booth with his FeelFlight Grip in the Innovation Showcase at AirVenture this year.
“What I liked about it is that it does both yaw and angle of attack in one place,” Charlie said. “He is actually out marketing it and has made a lot of progress on the place we want to go — a viable commercial product to get out into the fleet. And it came from here.”
Beth E. Stanton, EAA 1076326, majored in English because it involved the least amount of math. She finds it hilarious that now she is a pilot and writes stories about airplanes and technical stuff.