Well, I don’t know the autokinesis… I could try this easily since we have plenty of dark rooms where we can put a laser dot… but not today, as I just had a couple of glasses of Champagne since one ouf our colleagues is leaving the lab.
The wikipedia article here seems nice. One possible reason could be that the brain gets wrong about how the eye move after some second of sustained fixation.
If you want to see how your eyes moving without the brain knowing it gives you the illusion of things moving, you can getly press the bottom of the eyeball through the lid with one finger. As this causes the eye to move, you will se the image through this eye move too.
The examiner, who was a good friend of my instructor, had been clued into one of my ego problems. That was the fact that I was very hard to confuse on ‘Unusual Attitudes’ because I was pretty good at following what was really happening. (* I had been riding in airplanes since I was just a gleam in my Dad’s eye. My family had always had small planes.) Near the end of my flight test, I was under the hood doing the ‘Unusual Attitudes’ and he was so good and so smooth, took so long while just flying around, ( Taking much more time than any instructor had worked to get me into a good case of ‘vertigo’.*), that when he told me to take off the hood. my brain was so convinced that we were in a medium descending left turn that when I opened my eyes, that is what I saw as I looked out side. Then with yet no input from me or change of aircraft attitude, I saw the horizon quickly rotate and descend to the correct position. I was so convinced that “I knew” what my attitude was that my brain saw what it expected to see. (Very valuable lesson and that along with a couple of great instructors taught me during my training for my instrument ticket those things which have kept me alive so far.)
Fast forward several hundred hours to the time I was working on my instrument ticket. Ugh, I always seemed to get vertigo within 10 to 15 minutes into flying on instruments alone. It turned out that my brained seemed to go to the 'descending right turn most of the time.
Now, most pilots should and do practice for when or if they encounter vertigo, and how to recognize the early onset of the condition, some even can learn to get out of it or if they are in smooth condition and flying straight and level, will naturally regain normalcy. Fortunately for me, I don’t recover… Why do I think that for me, this is a good thing? Because I anm alive today as an old pilot…
I never had to worry about vertigo, worry about catching it early, worry about being able to rely on my instruments and ignore what my brain was screaming about what it thought the aircraft was doing, trusting my instruments or practicing what to do when I got vertigo.
I always got it early and bad, so it was my normal fight condition. The only thing others might notice was that I tended to fly with my head tipped to the left while flying on instruments…
This allowed me to move my head a lot, glance down, not be affected by flashing strobe lights from improper location or installation on the aircraft. All the other things that can and will induce vertigo into normal pilots. I never have had to practice over the years what and how to personally overcome vertigo while in IMC. It was my normal condition. I just eventually became so accustomed to it that, even though I ‘always remembered and never forgot’ about it, I could actually enjoy some of the stranger things that can happen while in instrument conditions. Long hours hand flying aircraft without auto pilots in all kinds of instrument conditions was not the totally draining time that it is for most pilots. I could watch the build up ice on the aircraft because I could swivel my head at will, (*Joy, Joy… *) watch the wing tip appear and disappear in the blink of an eye while we flashed through boiling clouds, the wonderful effects of partial sun light penetrating the clouds I was flying through.
I still do not like to ride behind the center of gravity in aircraft, sit facing backwards, be a passenger in small aircraft or cars while on twisty and bumpy rides, but… All in all I have been blessed with this affliction and without out it me and my passengers over the years are alive because of it.
The mind will see what it wants to see or expects to see long enough to kill you under many conditions and as a pilot, we are operating in the area where a majority of those things are common occurrences… Take heed of what Broomstick and the other pilots in this thread have stated, and be glad of the constant professionalism on the boring daily flights of the worlds airline pilots, it is something to be applauded.
Excuse my jackassness but as someone who is not a pilot can you explain to me why landing in a field better than flying another 10 miles to the airport?
That’s how a lot of people die–they’re not qualified on instruments (only visual, in which you have to know how to read certain instruments, but not all, and are dependent upon seeing the visual horizon to maintain your situational awareness). Trying to fly either under the weather, which is getting lower (as happened in the story), or deciding to fly up into the goo (where you can’t see anything, like mountains, radio towers, power lines, other aircraft, etc) is extremely dangerous and stupid. Going up into the goo in the hopes that you’ll break out on top is also stupid, as you really don’t know how high the ceiling goes, and chances are you’ll have to descend back into the goo on the way to the ground. And, there’s that period of being the goo when you’re unqualified to fly on instruments–that alone can get you into trouble.
In all probability she would not have made it back to Gary. We will never know, because she didn’t attempt it. But there is a good chance that if she had attempted to continue her flight in IMC, she would have become disoriented and crashed. She made the right choice.
Flying into cloud when you are not instruments rated feels like having someone throw a blanket across the windshield of your car when you are driving at freeway speed. It’s terrifying and frequently fatal. Your best chance of survival is to fly a 180 degree turn to fly back in the direction you have come from.
One of the most amazing videos (at least, IMO), demonstrating rolling at 1g. Bob Hoover, a legendary pilot, pours iced tea into a cup (in the cockpit) while rolling a jet.
She was a student pilot which means she was still learning to fly. Getting disoriented in a plane is deadly and the event cycle of a fatal accident is measured in seconds.
She was at a REALLY low altitude to start with and going inverted or stalling the plane is not recoverable (by anyone). Another 100 hrs of flying would have made a big difference in her skill sets but in all cases of flight, the most important thing to do is make good decisions. She made a good decision.
Let me explain disorientation to you. Take your car to an empty parking lot and switch feet on the pedals. You should be prepared to pull the parking brake and turn the ignition off because you will find yourself in trouble quickly.
Imagine doing that while maintaining 3 axis of control and no visual queues. If you wreck your car you’l have the advantage of a full steel cage and airbags to keep you alive versus a seatbelt and a little tin around you in an airplane going over 100 mph when it stops.
Do pilots ever think they could parachute out of their plane if they run into problems such as engine problems? This assumes they know how to parachute and have one on the plane. I also know most planes are not suited to have someone parachute out, but some are. My guess is there is not enough time so the whole issue is not worth thinking about.
You’d have to strap on a parachute, then try climbing into a small cockpit. It would be difficult, especially in a low-wing bird like a Cherokee. Getting out would even more difficult. Would it be possible? Yeah, but most, if not all, folks would rather trust to their skill and try to land the thing. However, newer planes do have an emergency parachute in case the sh*t does hit the fan.
It’s not a silly question, because aerobatic pilots in open cockpit aircraft sometimes wear a parachute. But engine failure doesn’t mean your plane turns into a brick. It means it turns into a glider. Inside the plane, and flying it, is quite a good place to be, even if the engine has stopped.
If those 10 miles included even a few where the pilot could not see, the very likely results would be FATAL.
Controlled emergency landings, particularly where you can choose to land, and do so under power, often do little more than damage the plane some, and are rarely fatal.
High likelyhood of living beats high likelyhood of dieing anytime.
This question always cracks me up. Do you really think it would be safer to jump out of the airplane?
When an aircraft engine fails, the plane glides. Safest thing is to attempt a landing. Most people walk away from that kind of thing.
True, there are a few times, such as in-flight fires, where you might have little recourse other than departing the aircraft. But that is pretty rare.
I do some aerobatics (though not as often as I’d like), and wear a chute. But there would have to be a seriously compelling reason for me to use it. Also realize that some situations requiring a departure, wouldn’t allow cockpit egress. Lose a wing, for example, and you’re probably going to be pinned inside by G-forces.
I’ve also flown in a jet with an ejection seat, and the very thought of that experience scared the hell out of me.
Unless it’s completely on fire, I’m staying IN the airplane.
One time, while flying on a passenger jet at night, I noticed a surprisingly long, straight line of lights on the ground below, which I pointed out to my brother.
Then I felt like an idiot as I realised that the plane was banked and I was actually looking at the horizon :smack:
VFR (visual flight rules) pilots are trained to use the instruments as a backup to what they’re seeing out the window. So you fly by what you can see outside and you glance at the altimeter every now and then to check you’re maintaining the correct altitude. You may also check your direction indicator occasionally if you need to hold a heading and you don’t have easy ground references. You wouldn’t give much attention to the artificial horizon because you’ve got a much better real horizon out the window. Going from relying on external cues and using the instruments as secondary information to using the instruments as primary and ignoring external cues is big jump in thinking.
At any rate, flying solely on instruments is not particularly difficult, it’s just a skill to be learned, but if you haven’t learned it, you may not last long with out an external visual reference.
Yes, indeed. It was a good landing. And thanks for the compliment on the writing, everyone.
Yes, that is correct. And the instruments are useful even if you aren’t flying in instrument conditions (I use the same navigational aids to travel long distances that instrument pilots use to navigate through clouds, for example) But, as noted up thread, the way those instruments are used in visual flying is not the same way they are used in instrument flying.
I mentioned an actual IFR flight I took under the supervision of an instructor. For the first five minutes I twice looked up from the panel to look out the window, even though I knew better, because I had been so thoroughly trained to look outside the airplane. What did I see? Nothing. It was like someone had spray-painted the windows grey. Under those circumstances there was no harm done. If I had been on my own, though, it might have been the start of something fatal. VFR habits and training are not compatible with instrument flying.
In order to obtain a private pilot license you do get some very minimal training in instrument-only flight. This is intended for emergency use only! The idea is that it might be sufficient for you to execute a 180 to get out of a cloudbank, for example. Or to climb above a cloud layer into visual flight conditions, at which point you call for help in navigating to a safe place to land. Such circumstances would have you in actual instrument conditions for only a very brief period of time. Even so, pilots trained in these emergency skills but not certified for instrument flight do not do well when encountering actual instrument conditions. The fatality rate is greater than 50%. Disorientation sets in very fast. I’ve spoken with other pilots who, like myself, got into bad situations without being instrument trained. You hear hair-raising stories where people exit the clouds thinking they’re level and find they’re in a greater than 45 degree bank and descending in a graveyard spiral after less than a minute in clouds. People who stall in a cloud bank without intending to and come out the bottom in a spin. It’s ugly, even when it’s survived. Remember, more than half don’t live to talk about it.
Actually, we do know. That flight lesson the next day? My instructor took me back to the “scene of the crime” and put a hood on me (that is a view-limiting device. With it on you can see only the instruments in front of you, you have no view of the outside and thus is simulates instrument flight conditions) and told me to fly to Gary. I couldn’t do it. I could either keep the airplane upright or I could navigate but I could not do both, even with his verbal help as he sat beside me. I could not do it even though there was someone next to me to save me from potentially fatal errors and thus I was under much less stress than the day before. I could not do it. If I had tried to fly that 10 miles to Gary I WOULD have died Realizing that, that fine Saturday morning, knowing it deep in my bones, has been the greatest factor in making sure I stay out of bad weather while flying.
A rather famous study put non-instrument trained pilots into a simulator to see how they would do in instrument conditions. The average life span was 179 seconds - just under 3 minutes. It would have taken me significantly longer than that to fly to Gary. I knew about that study before my first solo, and that knowledge did impact my decision making.
I voluntarily underwent additional training to improve my skills. By the time I got my private license I was able to perform the exercise successfully in very calm conditions, although I wouldn’t win any awards for how pretty the flight path would be. It is one of my goals in life to avoid any situation where I would need to actually use those skills. Should I get caught in bad weather that involves strong winds, turbulence, or anything else other than calm air I am very likely screwed.
The only pilots I know who routinely wear parachutes are those who fly aerobatics. I am also happy to say none of those aerobatic pilots I know have ever actually had a reason to use those parachutes, and it’s one of their lifetime goals to avoid needing them. That said, “engine problems” would probably NOT be a reason to bail out, unless the engine and airplane were both on fire. A non-working engine is considered an emergency, but most small airplanes will glide quite well for purposes of making an emergency landing. Indeed, there are two instances (at least) of Airbuses landing safely without engine power. Assuming you still have the ability to steer (and you usually do) most pilots will opt to land an airplane with a non-working engine even if they have a parachute strapped on.
Parachutes are, basically, for when the airplane comes apart, it’s blazing with fire, or there is no safe place to land. All three of the above are rather uncommon situations.
It is my understanding (subject to correction by those more knowledgeable in this area) that changing from visual mode to instrument mode can be difficult even for pilots fully trained in instrument flying, and it is in making that transition that an IFR pilot is most likely to get into trouble. It is also my understanding that airlines are always flown on instrument flight plans precisely to avoid such transitions.
Instrument rides in the T-38 are flown from the back seat, with a retractable “hood” that is on the inside of the canopy. It is attached by snaps to the back rail of the canopy and can be pulled forward to completely cover the canopy from the inside. Forward visibility from the back seat of the -38 is crap on a good day, but with the hood you really can’t see anything other than the inside of the cockpit.
My worst case of recognized spatial disorientation (what kills most pilots is unrecognized spatial disorientation) happened at night over the Atlantic while refueling. Aerial refueling is a completely visual maneuver once you are close to the tanker. You use visual cues to get in position and stay in position - you are essentially flying a very close formation with the tanker.
This particular night there was a high overcast (we refueled in the mid-20,000 foot range) and no moon, so very dark with almost no outside visual references. I was plugged into the tanker getting gas when we came to the end of the refueling track. The tanker began a slooooow right turn to reverse course and head back up the track. So slow, in fact, that I never noticed we started a turn - I just made small corrections to stay in position on the tanker and the roll rate was slow enough that my inner ear never noticed the turn.
Halfway through the turn I had the required gas so we disconnected and I started to back away from the tanker. When I got about 50 feet back I glanced down at my attitude indicator for the first time in over 10 mins. What I saw was a 30-degree right hand turn, but my body just KNEW that we were straight and level. I recognized the initial onset of spatial D so I returned my view to the tanker. This made everything seem normal again and maintained position while I processed the information that we were in a turn. I then backed out farther from the tanker and made the slowest transition possible to flying on instruments.
My training in how to react to conflicting signals from my instruments and my body saved me, but I was still shocked at how badly my body had been fooled. This was after thousands of hours of instrument flying and extensive training on the subject.
Going the other way can be disorientating as well. It’s no big deal in the cruise going from IMC to VMC and back again, but when you get to the bottom of an instrument approach in cloud you transition from instrument flying to visual flying at about 200 feet off the ground. If you don’t have auto-land available then you’ll be transitioning to hand-flying at about the same time and it may be the first time you’ve touched the controls since take-off. It’s a big mental adjustment to make.