Dazed and confused
Avoiding spatial disorientation
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 conditions. This seems basic, but every year, unqualified pilots fly into clouds. Establish sensible personal weather minimums and resist the temptation and pressures to exceed them. If you enter these conditions inadvertently, make a 180-degree turn and exit these conditions as soon as possible.
Fly within your (and your aircraft’s) 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. If you’re flying on IFR flight plans and in IMC, maintain your aircraft to manufacturer’s recommended IFR standards to minimize any chance that systems won’t work when you need them most and install a redundant power source for any gyro instruments. Be familiar with the aircraft you’re flying. Make sure you’re familiar with the instrument panel, the handling characteristics, and the aircraft’s speed. This is 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. There is nothing you can do, no piece of equipment you can put in the panel, that 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 keep your partial panel skills polished.
All pilots are susceptible to spatial disorientation—don’t underestimate just how powerful it can be. Prepare now and know what to do 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. alicia.herron@aopa.org
airsafetyinstitute.org/ACS/blindoverbakersfield
