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  • Chapter 17: Aeromedical Factors › Diving or Rolling Beyond the Vertical Plane › Coping with Spatial Disorientation

    Coping with Spatial Disorientation To prevent illusions and their potentially disastrous consequences, pilots can: 1. Understand the causes of these illusions and remain constantly alert for them. Take the opportunity to experience spatial disorientation illusions in a device, such ... Barany chair, a Vertigon, or a Virtual Reality Spatial Disorientation Demonstrator. 2. Always obtain and understand preflight weather briefings. 3. Before flying in marginal visibility (less than 3 miles) or where a visible horizon is not evident, such as flight…

  • Chapter 5: Maintaining Aircraft Control: Upset Prevention and Recovery Training › Upset Prevention and Recovery › Spatial Disorientation

    Spatial Disorientation Spatial disorientation has been a significant factor in many airplane upset accidents. Accident data from 2008 to 2013 shows nearly 200 accidents associated with spatial disorientation with more than 70% of those being fatal. All pilots are susceptible ... airplane to divert from the desired flightpath because they cannot resolve the conflict. A pilot may experience spatial disorientation or perceive the situation in one of three ways: 1. Recognized spatial disorientation: the pilot recognizes the developing upset…

  • Chapter 17: Aeromedical Factors › Treatment of Hypoxia › Spatial Disorientation and Illusions

    Spatial Disorientation and Illusions Spatial disorientation specifically refers to the lack of orientation with regard to the position, attitude, or movement of the airplane in space. The body uses three integrated systems that work together to ascertain orientation and movement ... moving. Flying can sometimes cause these systems to supply conflicting information to the brain, which can lead to disorientation. During flight in visual meteorological conditions (VMC), the eyes are the major orientation source and usually prevail over false sensations from…

  • Chapter 17: Aeromedical Factors › Health and Physiological Factors Affecting Pilot Performance › Diving or Rolling Beyond the Vertical Plane

    Diving or Rolling Beyond the Vertical Plane This maneuver may produce extreme disorientation. While in straight-and-level flight, the pilot should sit normally, either with eyes closed or gaze lowered to the floor. The instructor pilot starts a positive ... time the maneuver so the roll is stopped as the pilot returns his or her head upright. An intense disorientation is usually produced by this maneuver, and the pilot experiences the sensation of falling downward into the direction…

  • Chapter 17: Aeromedical Factors › Visual Illusions › Demonstration of Spatial Disorientation

    acceleration forces overpowering gravity. [Figure 17-6] These situations include uncoordinated turns, climbing turns, and turbulence. Demonstration of Spatial Disorientation There are a number of controlled aircraft maneuvers a pilot can perform to experiment with spatial disorientation. While each maneuver ... normally creates a specific illusion, any false sensation is an effective demonstration of disorientation. Thus, even if there is no sensation during any of these maneuvers, the absence of sensation is still an effective demonstration because it illustrates the inability…

  • Chapter 3: Human Factors › Demonstration of Spatial Disorientation › Diving or Rolling Beyond the Vertical Plane

    time the maneuver so the roll is stopped as the pilot returns his or her head upright. An intense disorientation is usually produced by this maneuver, and the pilot experiences the sensation of falling downward into the direction ... then tells the pilot to look up and recover. The benefit of this exercise is the pilot experiences the disorientation while flying the aircraft. Coping with Spatial Disorientation To prevent illusions and their potentially disastrous consequences, pilots can: 1. Understand…