Glider down near Reno - pilot OK

Richard,

I attended the Air Force Physiological Training seminar
for three days back in 1985 or so. We got to do the
spinning chair experiment. We also got to 'fly' in
the altitude chamber.

The instructor mentioned one time, wives of the pilots
were invited to sit in on the classes to see what their
husbands were doing. One young lady took her seat
in the chair, closed her eyes and put her head down.
The chair was spun and stopped. She was asked to
raise her head, open her eyes, and point to the clock
on the back wall and tell what time it was.

She opened her eyes and pointed steadily to the clock
and without a blink, said, 'It's twelve minutes past
three.' She showed no signs of dizziness or vertigo
of any kind.

They were all dumbfounded. How could this be? Was
she not human?

Turns out she did a lot of gymnastics...


Ray Lovinggood
Carrboro, North Carolina, USA

At 18:25 11 November 2005, wrote:
I wonder if any of you have experience vertigo training.
Let me share
one experience.

The room was full of 22 to 26 year old Air Force Officers
in Pilot
Training. The general naive attitude was it can't
happen to me.

Each of us were strapped one by one in a chair that
rotated on ball
bearings and had a rail around the outside. We were
asked to bend and
put our heads on the rail and close our eyes. We were
then spun for
about 30 seconds, about the time it takes for your
inner ear to
equalize and stop sensing acceleration. If the chair
was slowed down
you felt as though you were spinning in the opposite
direction. The
chair was then stopped and you were asked to raise
up and read the
clock at the back of the room..

The room tumbled your leg went out to save you from
the perceived fall
and get this about 30 seconds later you could read
the time.

I think that spinning a glider to get out of an IFR
condition may work,
but as others have recommended stay out of the clouds.


Richard
www.craggyaero.com