In article , Saville wrote:
Ricky Summersett wrote:

I have often wondered about Lindbergh's trans-Atlantic flight in the
Spirit...
He had a "periscope" with which to see directly ahead. He said he
could bank and turn the aircraft to see ahead as well if needed.
What I'm wondering is; What kind of situational awareness instruments,
if any, did the Spirit have on board?
I'm IFR rated but I have never tried to fly visually just by looking
out the side windows, is that difficult or simple? Especially in the
blackness that was bound to have been experieced over the open
Atlantic at night.
I wonder just how difficult or easy was it to fly visually with a
periscope and side windows? Was there needle & ball at this point in
time in aircraft?

Ricky

You can see what he had on the panel he

http://www.cradleofaviation.org/lind...it/439PH1.html

Better one, even if this is computer generated:

http://www.microsoft.com/games/fligh...pit_spirit.jpg

(The Ryan NYP 'Spirit of St. Louis' was featured in Microsoft Flight
Simulator 2004.)

The only really unusual looking instrument is below of the center,
T-shaped, which was the Rieker pitch-and-skid indicator.

Unusual today would be things like the small earth inductor compass
deviation gauge ('L/R') above the turn indicator. It let you know if you
were going left or right onto whatever your chosen course was.

It's since been integrated into the modern moving-card directional gyro.

And obviously, the pitch-and-skid indicator was combined with the turn
indicator for modern turn coordinator indicators.

That was one heck of a crossing, because:

a) He had been up about 22 hours prior to the flight
b) Was up for 33 1/2 hours throughout flight
c) Was up for 4 hours post-flight
d) Had to deal with water spray during flight
e) Had to deal with oxygen issues at 10,000 ft best he could
f) Started to hallucinate about 2/3 way through flight
g) No flaps, no brakes -- chopping the power and letting mud
slow him down at Le Bourget worked out great.
h) Didn't take coffee (diuretic and caffeine effects)
i) Took only a little water and five sandwiches
j) Had to very, very carefully monitor actual fuel burn rate and
would adjust engine RPMs to nail an optimal profile -- and
slowed down the plane a bit as the fuel burned off
k) He said that the periscope was too tiresome to use for long
periods so he only used it during the early part of flight
l) Restricted visibility for landing
m) Had to contend with constant longitudinal instability (which
was reportedly deliberately chosen, as a means of keeping him
awake during the flight)
n) Had to do own nav position calculations based on the stars
o) No electrical starter -- had to have someone hand-crank the prop
p) Dealt with storms, icing, continuous fog

Still one heck of a difficult flight, even today, had it been done with
an exact replica of that plane and these conditions.

Heck of a good navigator, too -- was only 3 miles off course by the time
he arrived off the southern tip of Ireland.

Trivia: Ryan NYP was the plane -- a derivative of the earlier Ryan M-2.
NYP stood for 'New York-Paris'.

-Dan