bildan wrote:

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. /snip/
-- Matt

Nothing is quite as terrifying as pilots with zero "hood time"
discussing how to fly in clouds.

A weight on a string simply works as a poor ball bank by indicating
slips and skids but says NOTHING WHATSOEVER about bank, rate of turn
or pitch.

Ho hum: there is ONE thing more terrifying than pilots with zero hood
time giving advice - and that's pilots with or without hood time who
don't think twice before speaking once.

A pendulum is NOT a plumb bob.

Brian W