UAT actually began more than five years ago when Lee Lauderback, Owner of Stallion 51, realized that the Mustang provided a unique opportunity to train pilots on recovering from unusual and inadvertent aircraft upsets.
With over 20,000 hours of flight time and 25 years of experience training pilots and owners of the P-51, Lee’s expert knowledge of aircraft and flight dynamics provided the foundation for developing the comprehensive program UAT offers.
“We’ve actually been building this program for over 10 years,” states Lauderback. “We’ve put many pilots through our Ground School and VFR program using the Mustang. People are excited about flying the Mustang, but they have a completely different perception after experiencing what UAT has to offer.”
In 2009, Lee wanted to add an IFR portion to the UAT training program. “We can do so much in the Mustang, but we couldn’t offer an instrument recovery syllabus because of flight instrumentation,” says Lauderback. “That’s when we decided to look for an appropriate jet and install state of the art EFIS (Electronic Flight Instrumentation System) to reflect today’s corporate aircraft.”
The L-39 has been highly modified with special flight instrumentation and equipment, including a canopy curtain that requires pilots to use only instruments when recovering from unusual attitudes and upsets. “The L-39 provides something very unique for corporate and even airline pilots,” states Lauderback, “it gives pilots real world opportunities to recognize, assess and resolve nose high, nose low and upsets in an aircraft that is comparable in many ways to what they fly. And you can’t get that in a simulator.”
