Scudrunners

Yahhh, you thought PPL training sucks. Rant is coming, but I will spare you for now.  :D

Im gonna take a stab and say actually flying in cloud.. 

HuronPotentialConflict wrote:

Strega wrote: Im gonna take a stab and say actually flying in cloud..

The title is IR theories/exercises. The instrument rating does not require training in IMC.

>:D

No, but it should
(just not practical, though - winter, ice in cloud, etc)

I think you guys are right so I'll start a re-word on Strega's response.

"Flying exclusively by reference of instruments, navigating via electronic signals from ground based stations."

I say "Ground based" because anyone can turn on a phone and find out where they are using GPS. If they learn the more difficult ways to locate their position..

GPS "should" be easy.

When I did my instrument flight training we used two stage amber for the vision limiting device.

It is just as good as flying in actual IMC...actually it is better because the instructor has normal visibility outsied of the airplane.

Instrument training at night (with a hood)
works pretty well, too. 

What the student sees with their peripheral
vision really doesn't help much.

Chuck Ellsworth wrote: When I did my instrument flight training we used two stage amber for the vision limiting device.

It is just as good as flying in actual IMC...actually it is better because the instructor has normal visibility outsied of the airplane.

I've heard about the two stage amber a few times now. Would someone care to explain how this works? Maybe a picture or video? I'd love to see how this worked.

Thanks!

Chuck probably knows more about this ('cause he's old enough to remember it?;))
Essentially, the interior windows of the plane are coated with an amber film, while the student wears a set of goggles that are tinted blue.  The interference between the two colours blocks out visibility to the outside for the student, while the instructor can see normally (albeit with an amber tinge.)  Much better than the current hood, as you dont get the slight cues of the world out of the corner of your eye..

If you run a google search, there's a few hits, and a fairly lengthy discussion over on the *other* forum..

Chuck probably knows more about this ('cause he's old enough to remember it?;))
Essentially, the interior windows of the plane are coated with an amber film, while the student wears a set of goggles that are tinted blue.  The interference between the two colours blocks out visibility to the outside for the student, while the instructor can see normally (albeit with an amber tinge.)  Much better than the current hood, as you dont get the slight cues of the world out of the corner of your eye..

Exactly....

The pilot flying sees everything inside the airplane tinted blue but still has all the visual clues of normal sight.....unlike wearing a hood where you only have tunnel vision.

A hood is an unorthodox contraption as it changes the visual clues one is working with.

Much like wearing several condoms, you can perform the activity but it just feels different as some tactile senses are missing....

Two stage amber on the other hand allows for a normal picture of everything inside the airplane and everything outside of the airplane is black.

As for the visual changes for the instructor it actually enhances the picture by making things look clearer...like skiing with amber glasses on.

Two stage amber was replaced by the hood because two stage amber required a bit of effort to install and remove before flight.

When we did our Commercial pilot flight test we had to demonstrate recovery from unusual attitudes with limited panel for instruments.....airspeed. turn and bank and altimeter....with two stage amber.

A lot of pilots claim the old school guys had inferior training.

How many commercial pilot candidates can recover from unusual attitudes with limited panel only ?

Chuck Ellsworth wrote:
Two stage amber was replaced by the hood because two stage amber required a bit of effort to install and remove before flight.

With modern technology, I wonder if we could make this a bit easier now? I'm quite intrigued by this concept and feel that this would do a lot of good towards training. Lemme see...