(Edit: “Rules,” not “Rating.” Sorry.)
Obviously I don’t know beans about flying, but I see many stories about inexperienced pilots who get disoriented flying through clouds, sometimes even to the point of flying upside-down. Aren’t there instruments on your control panel which tell you your speed, altitude, and orientation? How can you be plummeting towards the ground and not notice?
I hope this question isn’t so ignorant as to be insulting. I know flying is difficult and complicated and it’s easy to criticize from here on the ground. I wish I was skilled enough to know how to fly a plane. I just see many stories about accidents where inexperienced pilots seem to be making apparently ridiculous mistakes.
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The issue isn’t so much with using the instruments, but trusting the instruments. If I tell you that I have a net worth of $2 billion, the chances are, you’ll think I’m lying. Now imagine you’re night flying in low visibility and you’re upside down pulling 1 G. You look at your attitude indicator (the half blue half brown ball that shows orientation) and it is upside down. But you feel like you’re still upright because that is what your body is telling you and there is no discernible visual cue of up or down by looking out the window. Knowing systems can fail, you think to yourself; “Attitude indicator must be acting up”. Some people even go as far as trying to troubleshoot the issue. They usually end up getting flustered once they start hearing all of the warnings.
It’s very difficult to overcome the natural senses and to fully trust the instruments.
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