On Dec 29, 11:45*am, T8 wrote:
On Dec 29, 11:25*am, GARY BOGGS wrote:

I am amazed that anyone with a pilots certificate would actually think
anything hanging in the cockpit would tell you anything about the
horizon!!!! *Please tell me these aren't certified pilots!

Gary

I'm with you there, Gary.

The spit bit, I may need to clarify, was intended as wry humor.

-T8

A number of years ago an article in The Atlantic magazine by William
Langewieche (son of
S&R author and current Vanity Fair chief editor) described an old
story that an airline pilot
had used a pocket watch as a turn indicator when his gyros failed. WL
tried it by flying out
over the open ocean, where the horizon disappears. He hung a pocket
watch from the ceiling
of the cockpit and used it as a pendulum. The pendulum DID work as a
crude turn indicator
but it tended to dampen out after a few swings. Nonetheless, if/when
ever stuck in the soup the
correct approach is the benign spiral. It does pay to try that
whenever you get checked out
in a new plane so you have confidence it will save your butt.

-- Matt