Dazed and confused

While the physiology and dangers of spatial disorientation are taught during primary and instrument flight training, pilots can still misunderstand spatial disorientation and how to deal with it.

Here are some tips on how you can avoid its hazards.

Maintain VFR

If you’re not instrument-rated, do not enter instrument meteorological conditions (IMC). This seems basic but every year, unqualified pilots fly into clouds on purpose. Establish sensible personal weather minimums and resist the temptation and pressures to exceed them. If you enter IMC inadvertently, make a one-eighty and exit these conditions as soon as possible. You and your instructor will practice this in simulated conditions before the checkride—you may be surprised at how challenging it can be to just fly straight and level while under the hood, let alone turn.

Fly within your capabilities

Make a commitment to fly within your capabilities. Maintaining VFR isn’t always enough to avoid spatial disorientation. Use judgment and discipline to avoid conditions you may not be prepared for, such as marginal or night VFR conditions. Make sure you’re familiar with your aircraft’s instrument panel, the flight-handling characteristics, and the aircraft’s speed. This becomes more critical at night, when visibility inside the cockpit as well as outside is reduced.

Choose your route carefully

If flying in marginal conditions or at night, pick a route that provides the best outside visual reference, even if it lengthens the flight: over land rather than over water, for example, or over areas with ground lighting instead of undeveloped countryside.

Get an instrument rating

Nothing you can do, no piece of equipment you can put in the panel, will do more to protect you from the confusion that kills than the ability to correctly interpret flight instruments and control the aircraft accordingly. Once you earn the rating, keep your instrument skills not only current but proficient, and until then, err on the side of caution with weather decisions. If you just want to focus on passing your private checkride for now, that’s fine too, but make a plan with your CFI (or a trusted safety pilot) to practice simulated instrument conditions even after the checkride’s over.

All pilots are susceptible to spatial disorientation—don’t underestimate just how powerful it can be. Prepare now and know how to avoid loss of control just in case it happens to you.

Watch this Accident Case Study where a VFR-only pilot accepted an IFR clearance with tragic results. airsafetyinstitute.org/ACS/blindoverbakersfield

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