This document is Volume 2 of the FAA-sponsored Windshear Training Aid, developed by Boeing in cooperation with Douglas and Lockheed, providing the “substantiating data” behind the industry’s windshear training program. It was created after a National Research Council study found that pilot training on windshear was inadequate given the scale of the problem: over thirty transport-aircraft accidents and incidents tied to severe windshear, resulting in more than 600 fatalities. The program’s goal is to reduce these accidents by giving flight crews a single, industry-agreed source of windshear education, largely based on Boeing 727 simulator data with airplane-specific differences noted where relevant.
The findings draw on both “math pilot” simulator runs and human pilot-in-the-loop testing to derive and confirm recommended procedures. A key section distills nine to eleven lessons learned from real windshear encounters, including that windshear avoidance is the best defense, that microburst events are typically one to two miles wide and occur below 1,000 feet, and that crews often have only 5 to 15 seconds to recognize and react. The document also explains why recognition is difficult — prior airspeed-focused training, marginal weather, high workload, and an “illusion of normality” can all mask an encounter’s severity.
Building on these lessons, the report presents a Model of Flight Crew Actions: evaluate the weather, avoid known windshear, consider precautions, follow standard operating techniques, apply windshear recovery techniques if needed, and report the encounter. It stresses that flight path must be controlled primarily through pitch attitude with full thrust, that abnormally low airspeed may be necessary during recovery, and that clear crew coordination and communication with controllers are essential, since many past incidents involved unreported or poorly communicated windshear encounters.
Password: flightcrewguide.com