On Wednesday, March 5, 2014 12:24:51 PM UTC-8, wrote:
On Tuesday, March 4, 2014 7:58:56 AM UTC-8, John Carlyle wrote:

Visual perception is certainly not the only thing. I do think it is how most pilots interpolate between references to the airspeed and yaw string. Generally that scan cycle is a pretty rapid loop and wandering into stall/spin is not a big risk. I do believe that pilots get into trouble because, for one reason or another, they: 1) don't update the scan, 2) misinterpret what the instruments are telling them or 3) fail to act. I'd bet that #1 is the main thing - possibly due to distraction, fixation, overload or other reasons. When this happens your central and peripheral vision (and your inner ear) are how you maintain attitude and airspeed and that can drift, but also can be fooled if the visual cues are different than what you get 99% of the time when you are flying above a couple hundred feet. Why is this important to know? Because if you know and train to recognize that the cues will push to towards a skidding turn that is too slow you have a better chance of checking yourself before you do something based on instincts honed by flying at altitude that down low can kill you.

I do not know how strong these effects are but a ride with a competent check pilot/instructor might be able to inform how strong the tendency is.

That's my theory anyway.

9B

BTW, that's one reason why I tend to carry a bit more airspeed until I'm on final (like Kirk). I know that if I get a surprise or distraction on the turn to final with a bigger speed margin I will have more time to sort the distraction before airspeed bleeds off. That works in my -27. I don't do it in a Duo.

9B