GRAVEYARD Spiral - Unusual Attitudes - DON'T LOSE CONTROL of Airplanes - flying or flight training

What do you do if you lose spatial awareness? In this video, I show you how to prepare for the possibility of losing control of an airplane without visual reference, one of the biggest dangers when getting spatially disoriented.
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🎵 Music by Michael Bizar
- - - - - - - - - -
📝 Contents
0:00 - Intro
0:39 - Preparing for losing control
1:14 - 1. How your body perceives turns
2:37 - 2. Practising disorientation
2:57 - 3. Nose-low turns
3:21 - 4. Nose-high turns
3:51 - 5. Practising with Joe
5:12 - Wrap up
- - - - - - - - - -

[@ErichHafenmaier]

One of the things I was taught to remember during unusual attitudes was "All brown power down, all blue power through".

[@TheFinerPoints]

I like it! Remember right rudder with the power! 🙌👍

[@ErichHafenmaier]

@@TheFinerPoints Yup. I actually incorporated your tip about imagining that your right hand and right foot are attached into my training. When one goes forward so does the other. I believe it was your video on rejected landings and doing a go-around.

[@mikecournoyer]

Me too. All brown, power down…..all blue, power through has always worked for me

[@1dgram]

@@ErichHafenmaier Yes, but he's talking about applying right rudder to overcome the left turning tendency of most aircraft as you add power.

[@SVSky]

@@TheFinerPoints and on the Pull!

[@ClayCaviness]

Best unusual attitude training I did was during night flight. I never had any disorientation while recovering during the day, but at night my inner ear was 100% convinced we were still in a steep bank despite recovering to straight and level. Very illuminating. Also, every so often during unusual attitude training my CFI would surreptitiously crank in a ton of trim, which definitely increased the workload and difficulty of recovery.

[@ldoyle3rd]

Watching this in my backyard and guy doing aerobatics right in front of me, perfect timing!

[@TheFinerPoints]

I love it

[@mikecarlozzi6930]

Haven't done this with my instructor yet... going to ask about it. Thanks for showing!

[@prestonmiller9552]

Excellent thing to practice and get very familiar with. I sure enjoy your lessons Jason. Appropriate even for seasoned pilots. Thanks

[@marcelob.5300]

Outstanding lesson, thanks Jason.

[@FreePilotTraining]

There’s always so much value in your videos

[@robstanton9215]

I appreciate how you get to the point of the lesson from why, the cause, then to recovery without taking us from the Wright brothers through Chuck Yeager!! Thanks!!!

[@luv2drum19]

Love it! I make my students fly what they think is straight and level under the hood while closing their eyes. After a minute we're always in a bank and either pitched up or down

[@Parr4theCourse]

Good job, admittedly I’m not “comfortable” doing unusual attitudes, but manage to get through them, I think Foggels help so you don’t inadvertently look outside. In IMC I always verbally say: “On Instruments” that’s my cue to stay focused inside!

[@blueeye490]

Jason, just by watching your videos I feel extremely safe and motivated. I really want to get my PPL with you please advise how I can do that. I’m halfway in but I love your level of knowledge about aviation. Thank you Jason

[@tonythornton1973]

Thanks for sharing this content. Well done!

[@TheFinerPoints]

Sure! Thanks for watching 👍

[@jonathanshadmi3208]

Great one!

[@onfloat17]

This exercise never really worked for me, I never felt disoriented. And then while working on my instrument rating, my instructor and I were doing a hold, it was sunset. I could just see the movement of my ipad map out of my peripheral vision as we came out of the hold and started our approach. My eyes and my brain disagreed about my attitude. I felt like I was in a left bank but the attitude indicator said we were straight and level. One of the scariest moments of my flying experience. I really had to fight not turning hard right.

[@dojoswitzer]

Besides showing your model plane in a nose high position from the outside, sure would have been nice at that moment to also show how the attitude indicator would appear and what is the next desired appearance (more blue but still sloped artificial horizon).

[@unabletochoose]

I thought it was impossible to lose reference during flight, even is you can't see out the window. I always thought "there are instruments, you just look at them and there you go"..... my flight instructor was an old test pilot who really know his stuff. One time we were climbing below the clouds, I started to level off, being a VFR flight and all, and he says "don't stop, keep climbing". I didn't want to, but we climbed into the cloud, I thought okay, no problem, I have all the instruments I need to get out safely. It took me about 10-15 seconds to completely become disoriented and my instructor took over control, and told me what to do in that scenario. Boy was I scared to death. I always knew you shouldn't fly into IMC while VFR, but I'm glad I got a taste of it while being relatively safe with my instructor present. Should the worst come, I now know what to do (kinda) in that situation, but now I have much more respect to it, and avoid even the possibility of entering IMC like plague.

[@BrianSiskind]

Man this is such a helpful distillation thank you. Perfect timing as I will be doing this soon in my PPL training.

[@TheFinerPoints]

Awesome!

[@MarkSmith-js2pu]

Taking lessons is so damn fun. Wish I could re-live those days. Good luck

[@747-pilot]

@@MarkSmith-js2pu Yes it is! I'm finishing up my flight instructor course. So I'm seeing it from a different perspective now! I hope to share in some of that fun, when I _teach_ my students!

[@Noah-uf9kd]

so interesting

[@TigreUruguayo]

Hi Jason! Excelent video. Any chances that the app could be available for Android too? Thanks for all the content. I'm listening all the podcast from the begining and I just improve many aspects of my way of flying. Greetings from Uruguay!

[@blancolirio]

Good stuff Jason! Folks who don't fly think a plumb bob on a string works....it doesn't, because you are turning, and the gravity vector is still through the seat of your pants....fools your ears too... BTW Airline pilots continue to practice this every year at re-current training.

[@zidoocfi]

Airline pilots practice with plumb bobs?! That's plumb crazy! Seriously though, I commented a couple of days ago on Scott Perdue's FlyWire channel about how valuable yaw strings are for planes that can use them, and indeed they are wonderful. There is no plane for which a plumb bob can help with instrument flight, though I'm still open to throwing a duck outside the plane and just following the duck.

[@fbagli22]

Thanks to you both for sharing.

[@zidoocfi]

Great video Jason and thanks Joe for sharing what you're learning. This video reinforces training that I'm developing for controllers (I'm a controller and CFI) about what controllers should do if we recognize a potential nose-low graveyard spiral situation. I want controllers to be particularly alert for this possibility in VFR-in-IMC situations, and if we observe what looks like an unplanned turn and descent, what I want controllers to do is to ONLY say "level the wings". I do NOT want controllers to assign a particular heading or navigation fix if we see one of these potential nose-low graveyard spirals, and I absolutely do NOT want any controller observing one of these to ever focus on the descent and say something like "pull up" or "level off". I argue that if a controller sees this, it's easier for the untrained controller brain to focus on the altitude loss instead of the rapid heading change, and instinctively/reflexively think that we need to tell the pilot to arrest the descent. However, this might goad a pilot into pulling back on the yoke/stick, which at best will just tighten the spiral and at worst will rip the wings and/or tail clean off the airplane, leaving the fuselage to fall/tumble to certain death for the occupants. I would love to hear feedback from you and your viewers about whether this is what you would want controllers to understand about these nose-low graveyard spirals. I especially want anyone who disagrees with me to provide a good argument for what would be better, so that better training gets developed.

[@Saml01]

What's the legality of controllers getting involved like this?

[@zidoocfi]

@@Saml01 I'm a controller and flight instructor. If I'm at work and emergency occurs, my colleagues are likely to ask me to help. My comments above are basically a description of what I as a controller would do if I observe a graveyard spiral today. In others words, I would say "level the wings" and would NOT say "pull up" or "fly heading 090" because of how I understand the flight dynamics of graveyard spirals in real-time. I'm asking the question so as to see if this strikes others as reasonable or if anyone sees a problem with it. Other potential options include something like "climb back to 4000 feet and return to heading 090 immediately" or perhaps a deliberate choice to say nothing at all. Regardless, I want pilots to help opine on what, if anything, controllers should say when they see something like this. It's perfectly legal to poll pilots about what they want us controllers to do or not do.

[@julianbrelsford]

How I interpreted the question from saml01, is that they wanted to know whether it's legal for a controller to try to intervene when a flight --appears-- to be in trouble as with vfr-into-imc type situation, but the controller can't be sure what is really happening and is stepping outside their ordinary, required duties (which might include managing ifr traffic, giving pilots clearances they require, and so on).

[@Firefox131]

Dean, Thank You! One comment would be to have the controller to say is , “look at your instruments and level the wings.” The pilot may try to level by what “feels like level” rather than admitting that they are having a problem and going on the gauges or glass. It’s just a little reminder that, me, the pilot may be in IMC …FOG, and really not know it. Controllers are good folks, but just like pilots they fall victim to the way it has always been done

[@aerialprimate2574]

I just started basic instrument flying last lesson... it looks so much easier with a big glass panel as opposed to the old school 6 pack 😂

[@troymccarty6434]

Didn’t notice the music myself. Typically, I do find videos with music to be more engaging. Ironically, it is the lack of music I find noticeable…typically.

[@SoloRenegade]

In addition to turning for at least a minute as you do, I also have the student fly into it themselves. I have them fly 3x 90deg clearing turns with eyes closed and head down (I tell them when to turn and which direction). By the 3rd turn they're into it. I like this approach because I find it more effectively sinks home to the student that They Cannot overcome it. It eliminates all doubt in their minds as compared to the "instructor messing with them".

[@TheFinerPoints]

That’s a great thing to do. In the past I have had it backfire where the student doesn’t go into it or it takes too long and they end up developing some weird conference about it but all in all I’m a fan

[@SoloRenegade]

@@TheFinerPoints If they don't get into it by the 3rd turn, then in the third turn I make them do a 180 on the third turn. Sometimes I'll have them continue the 90 into a 180 turn on their second turn if they were still doing well. Mind you, I'm not telling them how long or how far I'm having them turn, I'm just telling them "give me what you think is a standard rate turn to the left/right. Now wings level. Give me a standard rate turn to the left/right.", and repeat as necessary. I've never had a student not get into it on their own after the 4th turn. Most will easily get disoriented by the third turn. I once annoyed a DPE on a helicopter checkride. I'd gotten so familiar with the helicopter that I could tell my airspeed by the sound of the wind over the canopy. I could discern 70 or less, 80, and 90 or more knots. I also knew my pitch and power settings. So I set my power for 80 before closing my eyes, and listened for the sound to change to tell me what was happening (climb or descent). After about 5x 90deg turns he couldn't get me into it, and took the controls and put me into unusual attitudes. But I was deliberately ignoring my senses too, and using sound and known power settings and other logical reasoning to discern my likely attitude and make adjustments. I wouldn't have been able to keep it up forever, but I kept it up long enough to get him a bit frustrated. I wasn't doing it to annoy him, just trying it as an experiment to see if it could work, as the idea had come to me a few flights prior to the checkride. He did still get me to experience some pretty severe spatial disorientation only moments later. But again, I ignored what I was feeling and solely reacted to the instruments were telling me, even though I felt like I was doing cartwheels over the back of the seat. So I understand how some students might be able to resist flying into it, but I also know how to defeat those tricks too.

[@pcbondart]

is everything that you talked about here done with the artificial horizon, or is airspeed considered in assessing nose high/nose low??? I liked this video, but wish you woulda shown what the instruments were saying while the maneuvers were taking place, thank you!

[@idktbh7108]

Jason, do you have any availability august 4th-7th??

[@Rodhern]

In a nose-high turn I would guess that the recovery happens at less than 1g. Have you ever tried to simulate an instant aileron recovery from a nose-high turn to see if an asymmetric stall is even likely?

[@DJ99777]

Turn the beat around. Turn it upside down.

[@Marbellous]

Do you use polarized lenses while flying? It doesn't bother?

[@aramelmi1020]

If one just mastered this one point in one’s IFR training then it was worth it.

[@veritasetlibertas7889]

Glass cockpit C-152?

[@davidwhite2011]

I have heard of students getting a death lock on the controls as a likely cause of some accidents. Has anyone experienced this or is it antidotal?

[@Parr4theCourse]

It “has” happened…..

[@zidoocfi]

@@Parr4theCourse Agreed, it has happened. It can be very hard for investigators to prove because there's hardly any direct evidence. It has absolutely happened in cases where a flight instructor has had do as much as throw an elbow in the student's face to get them to let go, and then the instructor can land the plane. Undoubtedly, it has happened where for whatever reason the instructor couldn't take over and it has resulted in a fatal crash. But in these cases, the absence of evidence generally means that investigators rule out other causes and are left to assume that it might have been a case of a panicked student.

[@Parr4theCourse]

@@zidoocfi Yea, when this was polled a lot of instructors responded that they had to overpower their student or it would have resulted in a possible fatality….. Seems like a discussion instructors/students should have on the ground and in the air slowly work up to it…. Not sure what the right answer is, but now that we know it can and has happened we can come up with steps to Mitigate it.

[@zidoocfi]

@@Parr4theCourse I agree. It's not the easiest thing to mitigate, and I say that with a wry smile. I would also like to know what works best: something like an elbow to the face, a tickle, or just screaming something like "LET GO OF THE [redacted] CONTROLS!"

[@TheFinerPoints]

I’ve only had that occur with two students over 20 years - I think it’s pretty rare

[@marklee1462]

He didn't seem disoriented

[@LJL0619]

Why the background music? This is important information, I'm trying to learn, I don't need distractions. Thanks.

[@flyhardt]

Tooth not available.

[@yeagermcbipper9008]

40+ seconds of intro? What is this a Marvel Studios Movie? Cut that crap to 20 seconds max

[@1UTUBEUSERNAME]

Why wouldn't you let the student stall the plane ffs. Teach not preach.