Mxsmanic wrote:
gatt writes:

Those sensations are very important. Knowing how to interpret them
(and how to avoid misinterpreting them) is especially important.

Then why must they be ignored for safe IFR flight?

The ones that are ignored are different sensations and typically have to
do with equilibrium and the inner ear. Examples are somatogravic and
coriolis and inversion illusions. If your ass leaves the seat or
compresses into it, however, it's not something you ignore.


"There are three sources of actual 'feel' that are very important to the
pilot. One is the pilot's own body as it responds to the forces of
acceleration. The 'G' loads imposed on the airframe are also felt by the
pilot. Centripetal accelerations for the pilot down into the seat or
raise the pilot against the seat belt. Radial accelerations, as they
produce slips or skids of the airframe, shift the pilot from side to
side in the seat. These forces need not be strong, only perceptible by
the pilot to be useful. An accomplished pilot who had excellent 'feel'
for the airplane will be able to detect even the minutest change.

How do pilots of RC models and UAVs manage to fly, given that they do not have
these sensations?

There aren't many/any RC pilots who haven't catastrophically augured an
RC plane. UAV systems are much more sophisticated than those in the
average single-engine piston airplane, and--I've not flown a UAV so I'm
guessing here--they're not doing things like steep-bank turns or
short-field approaches.

I understand why so many pilots without IFR training last only a few minutes
in IMC before they spin out of control, if they have such an overwhelming
dependence on relatively unreliable physical sensations.

Those are different sensations and you have to know the difference and
also what to reject or ignore. VFR pilots are subject to similar but
different sensations such as visual autokinesis, reversal of motion and
black hole approaches.

You can have those sensations while remaining perfectly still in normal
flight. When your ass is sliding toward the inside or outside of a
turn, or getting compressed into the seat or lifted into the lap belt,
those are not illusions.

-c