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Old June 12th 07, 03:59 PM posted to rec.aviation.piloting
Bertie the Bunyip[_2_]
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Default Head orientation in turns--how is it taught for aviation?

Mxsmanic wrote in
news
Snowbird writes:

First, motorcycles don't necessarily move in two dimensions in a
turn.


Neither do aircraft.

Second, you might also want to ponder what the motorcycle driver vs.
the pilot is looking at.


The driver of any vehicle needs to look where the vehicle is going.

Maybe the bike rider wants to look at the intended track of his bike
on the road, in order to spot any bumps.


No, that results in target fixation, and accidents.

Or maybe he just wants to optimize his
turn to the available width of the road and looks at it more broadly.
In either case it would seem to make sense that the rider's sight
perception improves, if he tilts his eyes more parallel to the road.


Motorcycle riders look where they want to go, just like pilots.

The pilot, on the other hand, does not look at any road ahead. He's
interested in the nose vs. horizon sight picture as well as the
instruments. That's a different case and it's not self-evident that
tilting the head parallel to the horizon would improve the pilot's
turn performance. On the contrary, especially if the pilot uses the
VSI and altimeter to maintain altitude, it's probably easier to read
them with the eyes level relative to the instrument panel.


This is a VFR pilot?

Third, it just might be possible that the pilot's stereoscopic vision
can better help him maintain altitude in the turn by visual cues, if
he keeps his head still.


Stereoscopic vision ceases to be a factor beyond around 10 metres, so
it is never important in the air--which is why full-motion simulators
use collimation to make everything seem infinitely far away, without
bothering to simulate 3D.

Fourth, a bike rider leans forward, while a pilot leans back in his
seat. Can have impact on how the head turns in a turn.


I was taught not to lean in any direction that isn't aligned with the
bike.

I'm not aware of scientific proof of the above, but neither of the
reverse. So until the opposite is credibly shown, I'll contend that a
motorcycle is different from an airplane.


Different in many ways, but very much the same in turns.



You're an idiot.

Talking to another idiot.

Bertie