michaeljtbrooks

Thanks for the feedback on the idea, sounds like it might have legs so I'll move onto a physical prototype. I've noted the concerns about drift. There are a couple of 9-DoF PCB module packages which include magnetometers and are pretty drift resistant (e.g. BNO085). Cheap enough to give it a go and see how it stands up. For those asking "what's wrong with the primary attitude indicator": Nothing for what it was designed for (deducing roll and pitch when instrument scanning). The issue is that you have to be looking at it, and your brain doesn't automatically turn information presented to your fovea into orientation, it takes conscious processing to do that. Your brain can however turn signals from the peripheral vision into sense of orientation without conscious processing. So this idea is not intended to replace proper instrument scanning or to replace the AI, it's intended to project a sense of the horizon to the edges of your vision. An example use case of this is where someone diverts their gaze such as looking down at Foreflight on their iPad, or fiddling with the radios. They're more likely to ignore false vestibular cues and retain a sense of their orientation if there's something that looks like a horizon out the edge of their vision. In case anyone is concerned about the safety aspects of me building and testing this: I'm going to speak to one of the aero club's instrument rated instructors to see if he's game to try this out. I'd suggest he tests first in VFR then only if it feels ok test again in marginal VFR, then finally in IMC. I'll put in an easy to access "off" switch in case it proves to be a distraction or throws off incorrect cues.

I'm thinking "cheap" by aviation standards, certainly less than it'd cost to hire a Cessna 152 for two hours. Maybe $150-$250 (US)? It'd be a one-off purchase, no dumb subscriptions. It's not intended to be a primary flight instrument, just an awareness aid, so I can avoid a lot of the certification headaches for version 1. This would also keep the cost down. I'm hoping that instrument rated pilots would be interested because if the NASA papers are to be believed, it'd cut down those fleeting moments of spatial disorientation in IMC, so they'd be getting benefit for a lot more of the time than VFR pilots.

Is this avionics idea actually worth pursuing or is it just daft? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyHr998dvpo I'm a (fairly mediocre) student pilot learning to fly a C152 for fun, but I also tinker a lot with electronics. I'm surprised at the number of accident reports in GA each year where spatial disorientation was a primary factor (10-30 a year). That makes me think that there are many more close calls we don't know about. My background is in Medicine, so I'm aware that the most powerful sensory cue for humans to determine orientation is peripheral vision. Central vision (staring directly at the attitude indicator) needs some conscious processing for you to figure out attitude. I found some papers about research NASA did in the 1980s and 1990s which demonstrated that projecting a faint gyro-mounted laser line onto the instrument panel reduced spatial disorientation in IMC / night because pilots could see it in their peripheral vision. So I was thinking of prototyping a much cheaper equivalent using colour changing LEDs and a modern silicon gyro chip. You'd stick the strips vertically onto the left and right of your instrument panel, or onto the windscreen pillars, so it's subconsciously feeding you an impression of your attitude without you having to look directly at it. If someone was selling such a thing at a reasonable price, that helped prevent spatial disorientation and was easy to install, would you buy it?