On 11 Feb 2007 19:02:09 -0800, "chris"
wrote:

On Feb 12, 2:34 pm, Jose wrote:
You can tell you are
climbing by feeling it in the seat of your pants, for instance.

Well, yes, but you can also feel (in the seat of your pants) that you
are climbing, when you aren't. As you said, the senses are unreliable,
and part of the skills of instrument flying is being =able= to disregard
those sensations when they disagree with the instruments.


I was thinking more in terms of mxs' assertion you shouldn't learn
about those senses because they don't help your flying..

Or did I read him wrong ???

I'm sure I'll hate myself for this, but... SOMETIMES he sorta, almost,
print near, gets thing right, be it on purpose or accidental, but be
careful with the phrasing.

Please let me rephrase it into a pilot's words which I hope are more
helpful.

There are two types of flying for most of us. Flying in VMC and
flying in IMC. "I see" these two types of flying as being worlds
apart both physiologically and Physiologically. They take different
mind sets and skill sets although both include basic airman ship.

In flying VFR or flying under visual flight rules in visual
metrological conditions we depend on all of our natural skills.
Vision, sound, balance, seat of the pants, and even the strength to
push or pull a control. We learn to use the instruments while using
the outside world for our horizon reference point and we lean to
navigate using what we see outside. Those who use only the radios or
GPS for navigation are not only setting up a bad dependency, but
missing out on one of the best parts of VFR flight. If you want a
real challenge, instead of flying around at 3,000 to 5,000 feet, get a
Cub or other simple plane and do a long cross country while staying
down low and do it without relying on GPS. It's a whole different
world and can give a real appreciation to flying by using a map,
ruler, compass and watch. It is far, far easier to get lost down low
than up higher. :-))

When flying under Instrument flight rules (IFR) in instrument
metrological conditions (IMC) we sill use basic airmanship, but we
have to ignore our five senses at least part of the time and rely on
the instruments. If they disagree the instruments are *probably* right
and our senses wrong. That is where our training comes in and we can
recognize when a specific instrument or set of instruments are
failing. Flying IFR requires much more precision than flight under VFR
and it is far less forgiving than flight under VFR. Even if you never
use the rating it can and most likely will make the pilot a better
pilot.


Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com