3 ms·
"pilots are more likely to believe erroneous instruments rather than their own senses and experience." The human brain is not setup for 3D dimensions of orient
by fleitz 15y ago
"pilots are more likely to believe erroneous instruments rather than their own senses and experience."
The human brain is not setup for 3D dimensions of orientation, unless you can accurately see the horizon it's more than likely that your perception of the planes orientation and vector is wrong than the instruments. In most turbulent situations the brain is wrong and the instruments are right. This is why pilots are trained to fly on instruments only. On most planes the instrumentation system actively and accurately informs pilots that their instruments are broken when they are in such a state.
- nazgulnarsil 15y agoit's not just the human brain. certain g-loads at certain vectors can cause a situation where 2 different scenarios are indistinguishable without outside reference. Illustrated most famously in Einstein's elevator thought experiments.
- blakeweb 15y agoCould you explain what you mean? My understanding was that Attitude indicators solved this problem using a gyroscope a long time ago. Maybe this falls into what you meant by an "outside reference", but it seems to me autopilots would clearly take these measurements into account. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attitude_indicator http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attitude_indicator
- nazgulnarsil 15y agoit does, they can fail. humans can fail at assessing relevant information as well.