A daft idea to avoid spatial disorientation in IMC...?

[danny_galaga]

23 hours ago, facthunter said:

The real ball is damped by the fluid in the Glass, It's a BALANCE  (slip/skid) only. The Turning "thing" is the ears semicircular Canals. You don't have to speculate about this. It's covered in Human Factors and other references. After a while the inner ear ceases to register the TURNING and if you stop turning it thinks you are going the other way.  The seat of the  Pants detects accelerations and "G" changes. Nothing is there to tell which way you are going unless you SEE it.  Nev

Yes, was a real eye opener for me years ago when I first did my ppl training. Did the two hours basic IFR. When the instructor gives you the frosted glasses and starts doing steep turns and climbs and descents for several minutes. Then it's

 

"what attitude are we now?" 

 

"We are in a steep left turn" 

 

Then it's off with the glasses and damned if we aren't flying straight and level 😲

 

Years later, and now I've gone the ultralight route with ra-aus, and unless I missed it somehow, they don't seem to do that demonstration.

 

I think there's no better way to tell you to stay out of the clouds than that one lesson.

 

 

[michaeljtbrooks]

I've knocked together a prototype!

 

https://youtu.be/HHSCCnjmjHc

 

There is a brightness knob that allows you to turn the lights to completely off should the sensor fail or give distracting signals.

 

The bottom-most LED also serves as a status indicator. It turns fixed yellow if the 9DoF sensor detects low accuracy, though in reality it's heading (z-axis) that gets the accuracy problems. Pitch and roll tend to stay reliable. I just use heading as a canary for deteriorating accuracy.

I think I might swap the colour of the excessive pitch up warning to purple so it's more similar to the sky and less like the ground.  

[johnm]

I read somewhere there was an ag pilot and he tied his boot to the cockpit roof - as a plumb bob - for a required horizon one day (could be a tall story)

 

Your idea is better refined MBrooks - good idea if it can be applied to a basic aviation license and aircraft

 

As to if Bureaucracy will stick their nose in  ................  (I hope they don't ............ cause just a visual aid ?)

[facthunter]

It's useless. A pendulum is worth nothing once you are Moving. Nev

[facthunter]

It would only be an undamped slip/skid indicator. In a Barrel roll, it would continue to Point to  the floor even when the Plane is Inverted. Nev

[KRviator]

On 13/11/2025 at 9:41 AM, michaeljtbrooks said:

I've knocked together a prototype!

 

https://youtu.be/HHSCCnjmjHc

That actually looks half decent, well done!

I'm still wary about the sensor drifting over time in a sustained balanced turn, and short of putting it in a centrifuge or similar I don't see any way you can reliably test that at home without taking it up and burning a lot of avgas but I'm watching the development with more than a little interest!