Essay On Spatial Disorientation

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The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of spatial disorientation on the number of errors made by students during instrument flight training at FIT Aviation simulators. Spatial disorientation is a condition of a pilot in which he or she is unable to interpret the altitude and speed of an airplane accurately (FAA, 2004). Spatial disorientation affect occurs due to changes in the flight surroundings, which includes fog, clouds, rain, and darkness. Although pilots could still take control of the airplane using the flight instruments in the airplane cockpit, failure of such instruments could result in disastrous event (Wynbrandt, 2004). Flight crew error is defined as an action or inaction that leads to a deviation from stranded …show more content…

In this study, the risks associated with the spatial disorientation will also be discussed along with the recommendations for reducing such risks. The control variables are the level of experience of the pilots and the type of simulator they are operating. There are basically three sensory systems, which are used by pilots to determine the orientation of the airplane: Visual system of body, Vestibular system, and Nervous system (Wynbrandt, 2004). Visual system of the body. The visual system of body is mainly responsible for determining the orientation of a person. Eyes are responsible for giving 90% of information related to orientation. The contradictory messages by other parts of the body are overruled by those of the visual system because visual system is the most trusted sense of a human being (Jacobson, 2010). Although a pilot is flying an airplane in Visual Meteorological Condition (VMC), the visual senses help him or her to keep the airplane oriented to earth. Due to spatial disorientation, the visual systems could become compromised, which could lead to mistakes in the vision system (Wynbrandt,

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