You're right, Chris. I did misinterpret what you said. Thanks for
clarifying.

On another note, having the 90 deg flaps improves your chances greatly
against total loss of control but provides no help against coming out of
the clouds too low to recover (or not coming out at all).

On 11/5/2015 8:20 PM, Christopher Giacomo wrote:
On Thursday, November 5, 2015 at 11:54:33 AM UTC-5, Dan Marotta wrote:
On 11/4/2015 6:16 PM, Christopher
Giacomo wrote:



While I have zero time under the hood, i have no doubt that an ARHS would have significantly changed my plan for the flight



How would an AHRS change your plan? I'm not trying to add fuel to
the fire, but please consider that nothing you can practice on a
computer can prepare you for actual IMC flight. Take a look at this
and understand that the sensations generated by your vestibular
system will likely be too powerful to resist without proper training
and experience.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensor...ns_in_aviation



And here's a youtube video showing two trained and experienced
military pilots who suffer spatial disorientation. One of them
doesn't survive...



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAaeBE7uSzY



There seems to be too many people who think that simply having an
instrument will save their bacon when the chips are down. You might
get lucky if you make a controlled entry into IMC, but don't bet
your life on it. Being suddenly enveloped when a hole closes around
you is another story. Once you were in the soup you made the right
choice to jump. My only critique of your decision to jump was that
I thought you waited too long.


--

Dan, 5J
Dan,
I think you misinterpreted what i meant by "changing my plan." While i intend to put an AHRS in my next ship and was planning on installing one in the HP, the purpose was to ensure i was at least wings level while doing some sort of benign spiral over more level terrain, and not to get myself out of the sort of situation i found myself in. If i had an AHRS at my disposal, i believe that i probably would have foolishly attempted to use it in order to fly down the valley, rather than tell myself that i cannot trust my senses and eventually bail out.

I am in no way comfortable in any form of IMC, whether it be in a single Cu or in a solid deck. While an AHRS can be a very valuable tool to have in the cockpit, like any other tool, you need to understand both its limitations and your own abilities to effectively utilize it. I plan to work towards developing a far lower cost option for "Get-down" ARHS units, but in no way take the notion of inadvertent flight in IMC lightly... my training told me to jump when that happens, and that's why i did exactly that.
Chris

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Dan, 5J