So there I was...

In article ,
Jose wrote:

Even when you are real proficient at partial panel for some reason you
end up hading a difficult time ignoring that AI laying over on it's
side and your sense of balance gets attuned to the darn thing.

That's what I've been told, and it may be different in a real airplane.
However, I was quite surprised that in the sim, I did not get any of
that. I found it trivial to ignore it. However, I did find myself
steering to the dead DG. What are other pilot's experiences with a
visible failed AI in a (non-motion) sim, and in a real airplane?

Jose

Last summer I had my vacuum fail in IMC over a 200' ceiling. Added some
excitement to an otherwise boring day.

My experience was similar to yours. While I was in IMC, I had no problem
ignoring the AI but I had to cover the DG so I wouldn't keep looking at
it. It was really annoying having to take my eyes off the instruments to
look up at the compass which is mounted just about on the ceiling of my
plane.

The funny thing is after I landed and the weather cleared up I flew
another 1/2 hour flight in VMC to get to a field where they could
replace the vacuum pump. During that flight for some reason I kept
finding myself "noticing" the AI and had to keep telling myself, "Just
look out the window and stop following the AI, idiot."