Yaw String refference - Spinning

[Vassilios Mazis]

What about the fact that we expose ourselves to 1,000,000's of
instances of instinctively responding to the string by stepping in the
direction the front end points to? Would that not lead to some kind of
conditioning that will have disasrtous results (i.e. pro-spin rudder)
when making a visual reference to the string, while spinning
unexpectedly and under stress?

There will have to be some very well rehearsed routine about this, and
regular practice.

Any human factors specialist out there ?

Vassilios

[Centurion]

Vassilios Mazis wrote:

> What about the fact that we expose ourselves to 1,000,000's of
> instances of instinctively responding to the string by stepping in the
> direction the front end points to? Would that not lead to some kind of
> conditioning that will have disasrtous results (i.e. pro-spin rudder)
> when making a visual reference to the string, while spinning
> unexpectedly and under stress?
>
> There will have to be some very well rehearsed routine about this, and
> regular practice.
>
> Any human factors specialist out there ?
>
> Vassilios

Not necessarily a "specialist" but I do hold an Australian ATPL and several
thousand hours in both gliders and powered (airline category) aircraft.
That's my resume out of the way....

Any "conditioning" will lead to some sort of automatic response to a given
stimulus. So yes, if the string goes out in one direction and I have
conditioned myself to react with a certain control input, then there's a
good chance I will revert to that learned behaviour in a crisis or when
otherwise busy/overloaded. A human needs to consciously THINK to override
a conditioned response. If thinking is a luxury due to other stressors,
the automatic response will be carried out without conscious thought - this
is sometimes called "muscle memory". (This has nothing to do with a muscle
being able to "remember" anything, but refers purely to the unconscious,
automatic response from the brain.)

With regard to spinning: step on the pedal, if things get worse (or don't
get better) step on the other pedal. Unless you're doing aerobatics (in
which case you initiated the spin) a pilot *should* be able to recognise
and recover from the incipient stages of both stalls and spins. If they
can't, they have no business being a solo pilot of any machine. Condition
yourself to recognise and recover from an incipient stall/spin rather than
jumping on a pedal due to a piece of wool/string :)

My $0.02 worth.

James
--
We are all agreed that your theory is crazy. The question which divides us
is whether it is crazy enough to have a chance of being correct. My own
feeling is that it is not crazy enough.
-- Niels Bohr