NASA and Boeing determined that the amount of time between the first overt indication of an upset event and the point at which the pilot could no longer influence the fatal outcome was often just 10 seconds or less. There is one critical aerodynamic factor that reigns king above all others. This presentation touches on NASA’s findings, contains the seemingly infinite complexity of possible pilot considerations during an airplane upset to a mere six, and concludes with a comprehensive scenario-based analysis of ‘the’ critical aerodynamic factor that always comes first; a factor that is immediately influenceable by every pilot, on every flight, in nearly every situation.