Friday, May 18, 2012

Climbing and Level Flight Illusions


If you climb rapidly in a plane and then suddenly level off, the otoliths in your inner ear send amessage to your brain of tumbling backwards.

Your first impulse, if you are on instruments, is to push the plane into a nose down attitude. That reaction can intensify the illusion.

If you don’t recognize and ignore the illusion you may enter an outside loop with serious consequences to both plane and pilot. 

If you are not controlling the attitude of your plane, because of distraction, and you enter a climb, the plane attitude may set you up for the illusion when you discover your error and attempt to return to straight and level flight.

This illusion may occur when entering and exiting a series of cloud layers while you are climbing.

Your Instrument Instructor is a good source of a person who experienced some of the illusions and can aid the uninitiated 
learner.