Dear Neo (New Equations class of 2006),
For the last 12 days I have been in Kingman, Arizona, working on getting my "instrument certificate" which will allow me to fly during bad weather and through the clouds if an airport is clouded over. I got my pilot's license in 1979, but have been a Visual Flight Rules pilot only, which means I can only fly when the weather is clear and I can see, in other words, NO CLOUDS!
This was, without doubt, the most difficult experience I have ever been through. Imagine, if you will, wearing a device that blacks out everything except a small portion of the instrument panel. You cannot see outside, and to see your flight instructor, you have to move your head 45 degrees to the right. Imagine doing this in an airplane going 100 miles per hour at 6000 feet.
Your head is telling you that you are banked one way or another, and your eyes are telling you that the instruments say you are straight and level. In the beginning my hands believed my head and not my eyes, and I kept putting the airplane into a death spiral. Add on top of this the terrible nausea and dizziness that goes with the spatial disorientation—and, it is, suffice it to say, very very stressful.
The first three days were the worst days of my life. I couldn't control the airplane, my turns were uncoordinated, I kept climbing, then descending (in instrument flying you must maintain your altitude +/- 100 feet, and must stay on your course within 1 mile either direction). Nothing worked, and on top of it, I was extremely sick to my stomach. After I landed on the third day, I called my office and told them I would need an additional 4 days of training and went to the hotel and extended my stay.
On the fourth day a miracle happened. As I was climbing out to the altitude my flight instructor had given me, something inside said, "use your function words." I let go and sank (I know the 4s will understand) and started saying my function words, and all of a sudden everything started happening exactly the way it was supposed to. I was able to maintain my headings and altitudes, and all of the nausea and dizziness went away. The training went extremely well from that point, and I got my instrument ticket and multi-engine instrument ticket a day earlier than I was scheduled to get it. And, I had fun doing it.
There is a reason the word "function" begins with "f-u-n!"
God Bless you Alan and Barbara.
With much love and gratitude,
Allan
