@@unwelcomemotivation Normally the student wears a visor that blocks most of their vision arc, so they mostly only see the instrument pannel... but it doesn't simulate being in the clouds very well, because you can still pic up visual cues in your periphery vision.
This video really helps me understand how Kobe Bryant’s pilot lost control once he entered into the thick fog / clouds. It’s extremely way more difficult to control a helicopter when you lose sight of the ground than one would think. Great video. Very interesting. RIP Kobe.
This is not how kobes pilot lost control. No one knows for sure right now. As far as we know he had all his instruments, which he should be able to handle.
@@-AthleteInAction- Worst part is kobe's copter made it to 2400 feet before the pilot got confused and banked by accident, 2500 feet was when the cloud cover ended. They were literally 100 feet away from making it to out of the clouds.
@@unwelcomemotivation It's as if he panicked when he poked his nose into IMC and realized that he couldn't get above it. He most likely suffered spatial disorientation. Even though they say he is rated IMC, questions arise about the company which chattered VFR flights only for that aircraft and him operating only in VFR. So there may be legal implications of taking that aircraft into IMC.
@@TeStOs78 I was in Simi Valley the day that happened. Here's what I suspect based on the cloud cover/visibility at the time. I think he likely had view of the ground below him but with very little horizontal visibility. This would potentially give him the false belief that he was high enough to avoid terrain ahead of him and might be able to see terrain in time to avoid it. I've driven along the 101 too many times to count and in that area the 101 has peaks on each side of the free way as if the 101 was built in a narrow valley. My suspicion is that he saw the ground steadily rising closer below him as he turned, which brought him away from the 101 and toward the peaks, and didn't realize he was in trouble until it was too late. When I was driving through that area that morning I was glad I chose not to fly to Camarillo in my plane, a decision I made for many reasons only one of which was weather. But still, I noted how low the clouds were and how bad visibility was in front of me. I don't think this was a spatial disorientation issue. I always experience some level of spatial disorientation in IMC. The training helps you push it down quickly (and the more proficient I am, the faster I can suppress it.) I think the pilot was complacent with the terrain.
My absolute favourite helicopter instructor IN THE WORLD... 1000 % dedicated to flying, to what he does and to teach people not even with him in the machine! Keep this all up!
Great lesson. It’s really interesting to see what Simon was thinking he was banking right , but he was drifting left. I think this should be mandatory training. Thumb up
@@kanorive Yes, It did. The Pilot couldn't see because of the dense fog. There was not other pilot that could see that they were falling, because there was fog all around.
I lost reference at night as a student pilot during my first night take off years ago. I started my crosswind turn and pitched up and over banked because I wasnt paying enough attention to horizon. My insyructor allowed my airspeed decay to about 30kts before he said check your airspeed, then corrected for me. Lesson learned! Great job again!
Inadvertent IMC has claimed the lives of many of our brother and sister aviators and is something that should NEVER be taken lightly.... I remember the feeling of losing all reference when i did my plank licence 5 hrs instrument and how quickly the inner ear started playing tricks... well done video and should be a lesson for anyone who flies anything...
"Today you gonna fly with no visual reference" "Then i'll take your instruments away" "Then i'll throw in a dozen angry squirrels... and play some heavy metal at 110dB" "...Let's see how quickly he lo... ouch. stop hitting me!!!" xD
The crash that killed Kobe, while tragic, was far from unique. So far, it appears to be yet another instance of a pilot flying VFR accidentally getting himself into the clouds and becoming disoriented. It is the leading cause of crashes in general aviation - and leading cause of pilot deaths by far. People have been concerned with learning how to fly in the clouds using instruments for a very long time because of this. This concern certainly didn't start with the Kobe crash, but hopefully it will lead to the end - by means of better training and possibly other regulations.
@@willoughbykrenzteinburg Nope, not unique, but what this experiment demonstrates is what a lot of people may be wondering still. It's never the same when you compare what you've been told to what you can see for yourself. An experiment like this would fill in the blank spaces for a lot of people who are still pondering how an experienced pilot could have crashed in such a way that don't make sense.
Great video and one which should be shown to ALL low hour pilots/students as part of their training. Having said that, I know that many more experienced VFR pilots would gain a very useful insight from It. I don't fly much these days, but I have just under 8500 hrs on both fixed and rotary winged aircraft...and I found it most interesting.
I had a friend who was blind and when I got my PPL I took him for a ride and gave him a supervised turn at the controls. He had no problem keeping wings level or making climbing and descending turns. I was stunned. What made it easier for him was that he was very light on the controls.
Pilot behind the blanket banked to the left all three times. Wow. That’s the exact direction that Kobe’s pilot banked. This pilot thought he was going right but he was really going left. Wow. 🙏🏾🙏🏾 This explains a lot. Crazy how this was done a year ago.
It sorta does, but all of his instruments were working and he should have known how to use them. I can understand how he made a mistake and didn't, but it was avoidable.
did you know kobe's copter made it to 2400 feet before the pilot got confused and banked by accident, 2500 feet was when the cloud cover ended. They were literally 100 feet away from making it to safety. So sad.
@@unwelcomemotivation I don't think it was by accident. I think he was trying to climb above the terrain, turn 180 degrees, and head back to the Van Nuys/Burbank area. The pass he was flying through went from low ceiling to zero visibility rapidly. I think he realized that he messed up, tried to get back to a safe area, but then turned too quickly and became spatially disoriented which caused him to lose altitude.
@Inactive Account yes but if your watching this video if you go into clouds just going up helicopters capabilities or pilot error (spatially) could happen easy fast with copter
Yeah its how our equilibrium gets used to the bank. You think youre flying level, you feel completely flat and stable on your seat so the instruments must be faulty. Then after a while it will become unrecoverable. The graveyard spiral, its called.
This is such a cool idea. It's unfortunate in helicopter IFR training that the foggles do not fully block your view and we can't experience true IMC. I just wish there was a way to do something like this where the safety pilot could see the gauges and didn't have a blocked view.
I try doing the same when sitting in a plane, close the windows and feel is it going left or right. I was always wrong, never about up or down but left and right.
I’m a fixed wing pilot, IFR certified. But in learning more about the complexity of flying helicopters, and with what’s demonstrated in this video, it seems that it takes an incredible amount of skill, and maybe even a little luck, to fly single pilot in the kind of situation that Kobe’s helicopter was in and not have an accident.
nice idea...i will try that with my mosquito..good idea for IFR practise!!in my case it will be hard cause it is a single seat heli....will give it a try.thank you for the idea
I'm a Fixed Wing Private Pilot with an Instrument Rating was curious about using secondary instruments to infer the bank. In an aircraft if we lost the Attitude Indicator and Turn Coordinator you would be able to infer that you were in a bank, and in what direction by using the Compass or Direction indicator. Likewise you can infer pitch by using the altimeter ie are you climbing or descending? Can similar techniques be applied to helicopter flight?
I just watched an old video where you had Bradley blind folded and he was trying to fly it and I found it hilarious and educational and now this video. Great video like always.
Yes I remember that video. That was fun, for me, not for Brad. He was freaking out, and rightfully so. It's really scary being completely disoriented and having no clue what's up and what's down.
Great video for showing what can happen in a short period of time when IMC. Vertigo hits you like a ton of bricks. Unless you fly using instruments only, your body will feel a completely different sensation.....typically wrong.
11:38 Here is your answer: No. Not a bit. Reason: The organ in the ear is a sensor for acceleration, not for attitude. You will crash without seeing the instruments, especially attitude indicator amd variometer, immediately.
I dont know if you are a pilot or not but if you are a trainee you will see in the future that when you are in ifr conditions you lost most of your senses because they are heavily dependent on the visual reference and the senses you still feel are mostly false senses. For example feeling of climbing when you accelerate on level flight or feeling of a reverse turn after turning to level flight from a prolonged roll
If you drop all the visual cues you could be in any position if acceleration forces are gentle and smooth. Which is exactly why people crash, they get distracted and don't notice the aircraft turning and pitching and then out of nowhere a stall warning or sudden sound of air rushing around the cockpit, rpm increasing and with a bit of luck they can recover.
Wouldn’t something hanging in the cockpit help with this disorientation? Something like a plumb line or an air freshener (for a lack of better terms)???
@@sfdanceron1 No what they need is artificial terrain and elevation that is shown via heads up display so they always have a reference even in clouds. Or they need to land immediately.
This pilot here had several times to try and try and get it right. Kobe’ pilot.... just once.Two pilots would have been a good idea...not going up in the first place would have been even better.
I am a non pilot with a good understanding of helos and flight controls, flying in an r-22 with an instructor friend he gave me full controls (with him covering of course) on straight and level flight at about 4000 msl. I could not believe how hard it was to keep it going straight and level with correct power levels etc. Basically you just think of what you want to do and it just happens. It was truly scary and enlightening. I did get used to it but man it scared me
If you have a magnetic compass, Altimeter, and Airspeed indicator you can maintain straight and level flight, and actually perform most instrument maneuvers that don't require VHF reference.
I do believe that someone who has always been blind could fly under IFR conditions better, if they had a way to read the instruments. In the paragraph below I describe attempting IFR flight at night in fog. The one thing that seemed to cause me the most trouble was my tendency to look for some visual reference to fly by, not finding it caused panic and the whole thing went downhill from there. I think it has something to do with subconscious uptake. When you learn to fly your subconscious mind takes over and keeps everything straight and level, but when you lose visual reference you resort to using your conscious mind and it's like learning to fly all over again, except you have less information available. I've tried flying a simulation at night in fog, even with the artificial horizon it freaked me out. I would be flying along maintaining level flight, then I would glance at the AH and see a 45 degree bank in just a few seconds. Trying to recover from the bank often proved impossible. Flying above the fog where I could see the contrast between the cloud layer and the stars was easy, but once I lost all visual reference it turned into a nightmare within seconds. That was just a simm, I would never consider getting into an aircraft under those conditions for real.
awesome experiment. during a real flight, i mean, not knowing you're being tested, the loss of control tends to be faster and more violent, i believe, because you don't have the mindset the guy had, already knowing what was going on, and during a "real" flight, he wouldn't have had a second and third chances.
That is what the training is for. No instructor is going to let you go out until you're competent. Now though, when you are admonished to stay away from IMC [instrument flying] after seeing this video you will take it very much to heart.
By far one of your best videos to date in regards to Heli training. Thank you for producing entertaining and informative helicopter videos. If I ever travel through Canada, I will try to stop in and say thanks in person. Im based out of Anchorage Alaska, and we have very similar environmental/terrain/weather... but I think you get more sunny days from your videos! If you make it to Alaska, please let me know!!!
We won’t know until the official NTSB report is published, but it seems he was flying VFR and didn’t have time to switch to IFR after he encountered IMC.
Good IFR skills are very perishable. Just because you are rated doesn't mean you are proficient. This pilot was IFR rated and also certified to teach IFR with thousands of hours and was recertified last May. However the pilot was mostly working for an operation that was VFR only in their FAA Part 135 op spec. That means most of his time was spent flying in VFR conditions. Most pilots in their quiet moments will admit that instrument skills deteriorate within weeks of no practice or operation in IMC conditions fixed or rotary. Switching to instrument flight is not easy especially if you are not prepared to do so. It takes a different frame of mind than when flying visually.
Question what are the chances that your instruments can fail like this. And is there a back up someone could use in case of emergency. Thank you for your incredible knowledge
Have you seen the one where the brazillian heli-pilot crashes and kills the bride and everyone inside it? Is that what happens like in this video because it looks like he's flying through some shady fog/clouds.
Oh ya for sure. And even worse in that tragedy was that the helicopter they were in was absolutely not equipped with the right instruments for VFR into IMC. That pilot should have turned around when he saw the patch of fog.he had a couple chances to The fact that pilot managed to maintain a controlled flight as long as he did before crashing was just insane. Without the proper instruments and a complete blanket of fog, to rely on your instincts and very little instruments for as long
Great video! No, a blind person would not be better at controlling attitude, because the human vestibular system only provides relative attitude changes, based on angular acceleration. We also sense the direction of gravity to correct our sense of up vs. down. These are only accurate in a steady-state position (stationary, or straight and level movement (flight)). They become useless in a moving / turning aircraft, which is why we need vision to correct our sense of a horizon. Blind people use touch instead of vision (lean against furniture, their cane etc), when they are not in a steady position. But, you can't touch the mountains around you in an aircraft. If you can, it's too late... :) BTW, I'm an instrument rated pilot.
Silly question I'm sure, but could you use water in a clear water bottle as a way to know what the horizon is? I feel the surface of water in a bottle does a fairly good at being level regardless of how uneven the thing is it's set on.
Reminds me of that scene in Nicolas Cage & Tommy Lee Jones' movie _Fire Birds,_ where Cage had to train in "The Bag", but his eye-dominance problem made it hard for him to rely on the monocle.
Looking away from one's panel can also trigger a bad situation even when a pilot is doing well with instrument flying. I've never even been in a rotor craft, much less flew one, but I would think that without a specific set of instruments the task of safely flying one is virtually impossible outside of VFR conditions. I would think you would need a speed reference, as well as a reference to your principal axes, as well as your altitude. So that would be 5 instruments as a minimum to safely fly in IMC in a rotary-wing aircraft. That would be my guess anyway. Although from what I have seen with fixed-wing aircraft accidents the problem generally arises from a pilot disbelieving what their instruments are telling them and instead believing what their bodies are telling them, as opposed to not having the correct information at hand. This video does an excellent job to illustrate the fact that a pilot can never trust their body as a flight instrument, and this is mainly because our physiology is built around a grounded existence. The fact that our equilibrium system is based on fluid movement within our ears, and more importantly our ability to see, makes it an impossible task to use one's body for flight cues. It is very easy to disorient someone on the ground if you give varying cues to their various senses, such as giving the impression of their body doing one thing while what they are seeing is different. That is a big one, but not the only way to disorient someone by confusing their senses.
This is how instrument training should be done.
how is it done?
@@unwelcomemotivation
Normally the student wears a visor that blocks most of their vision arc, so they mostly only see the instrument pannel... but it doesn't simulate being in the clouds very well, because you can still pic up visual cues in your periphery vision.
@@OOTurok That makes a lot of sense.
@@OOTurok most of the instrument training at my school was done at night, to prevent that from happening
@@bndahi8251
If you're in the city... you still have a lot of visual cues, from the lighting... unless you are training in open country, at night.
This video really helps me understand how Kobe Bryant’s pilot lost control once he entered into the thick fog / clouds. It’s extremely way more difficult to control a helicopter when you lose sight of the ground than one would think. Great video. Very interesting. RIP Kobe.
But didn't Kobe Pilot have instruments + ground control?
This is not how kobes pilot lost control. No one knows for sure right now. As far as we know he had all his instruments, which he should be able to handle.
@@-AthleteInAction- Worst part is kobe's copter made it to 2400 feet before the pilot got confused and banked by accident, 2500 feet was when the cloud cover ended. They were literally 100 feet away from making it to out of the clouds.
@@unwelcomemotivation It's as if he panicked when he poked his nose into IMC and realized that he couldn't get above it. He most likely suffered spatial disorientation. Even though they say he is rated IMC, questions arise about the company which chattered VFR flights only for that aircraft and him operating only in VFR. So there may be legal implications of taking that aircraft into IMC.
@@TeStOs78 I was in Simi Valley the day that happened. Here's what I suspect based on the cloud cover/visibility at the time. I think he likely had view of the ground below him but with very little horizontal visibility. This would potentially give him the false belief that he was high enough to avoid terrain ahead of him and might be able to see terrain in time to avoid it. I've driven along the 101 too many times to count and in that area the 101 has peaks on each side of the free way as if the 101 was built in a narrow valley. My suspicion is that he saw the ground steadily rising closer below him as he turned, which brought him away from the 101 and toward the peaks, and didn't realize he was in trouble until it was too late.
When I was driving through that area that morning I was glad I chose not to fly to Camarillo in my plane, a decision I made for many reasons only one of which was weather. But still, I noted how low the clouds were and how bad visibility was in front of me. I don't think this was a spatial disorientation issue. I always experience some level of spatial disorientation in IMC. The training helps you push it down quickly (and the more proficient I am, the faster I can suppress it.) I think the pilot was complacent with the terrain.
My absolute favourite helicopter instructor IN THE WORLD... 1000 % dedicated to flying, to what he does and to teach people not even with him in the machine! Keep this all up!
All 3 times he banked left, even when he was sure of right.
Dewey Watts spatial disorientation is a killer. When the hairs in your vestibular system evens out, you don’t know what direction you’re going.
Kobe
Gnarly Arly Spacial
Brandon it could have been done , it was just pilot error
@@gnarlyarly9943 What exactly is special disorientation?
This gave me anxiety...
As it should, to keep you from ever getting to this point. (VFR into IFR without reference, IMC/FIT)
This was great. I like how patience you’re with him. And handled his training very well. You never changed your tone. Keep up the good work. 👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽
Great lesson. It’s really interesting to see what Simon was thinking he was banking right , but he was drifting left. I think this should be mandatory training. Thumb up
This guy:
Control Tower staff: 0_o
Kobe Bryant brought me here.
I think this kind of happened in Kobe's accident...
Me too
RIP
@@kanorive No it didn't
@@kanorive Yes, It did. The Pilot couldn't see because of the dense fog. There was not other pilot that could see that they were falling, because there was fog all around.
I lost reference at night as a student pilot during my first night take off years ago. I started my crosswind turn and pitched up and over banked because I wasnt paying enough attention to horizon. My insyructor allowed my airspeed decay to about 30kts before he said check your airspeed, then corrected for me. Lesson learned! Great job again!
Great test. Better than just words. To experience this scenario for real is worth a thousand words.
Inadvertent IMC has claimed the lives of many of our brother and sister aviators and is something that should NEVER be taken lightly.... I remember the feeling of losing all reference when i did my plank licence 5 hrs instrument and how quickly the inner ear started playing tricks... well done video and should be a lesson for anyone who flies anything...
"Today you gonna fly with no visual reference"
"Then i'll take your instruments away"
"Then i'll throw in a dozen angry squirrels...
and play some heavy metal at 110dB"
"...Let's see how quickly he lo... ouch. stop hitting me!!!"
xD
It's a good training tho, almost everyone can fly when the conditions are good, but when the conditions are worse some will fail.
Wow. This is an incredible learning experience for that pilot. Absolutely perfect demonstration!
This was done over 2 years ago and you would think that they did this experiment after the Kobe Bryant helicopter crash.
The crash that killed Kobe, while tragic, was far from unique. So far, it appears to be yet another instance of a pilot flying VFR accidentally getting himself into the clouds and becoming disoriented. It is the leading cause of crashes in general aviation - and leading cause of pilot deaths by far. People have been concerned with learning how to fly in the clouds using instruments for a very long time because of this. This concern certainly didn't start with the Kobe crash, but hopefully it will lead to the end - by means of better training and possibly other regulations.
@@willoughbykrenzteinburg Nope, not unique, but what this experiment demonstrates is what a lot of people may be wondering still. It's never the same when you compare what you've been told to what you can see for yourself. An experiment like this would fill in the blank spaces for a lot of people who are still pondering how an experienced pilot could have crashed in such a way that don't make sense.
Great video and one which should be shown to ALL low hour pilots/students as part of their training. Having said that, I know that many more experienced VFR pilots would gain a very useful insight from It. I don't fly much these days, but I have just under 8500 hrs on both fixed and rotary winged aircraft...and I found it most interesting.
I had a friend who was blind and when I got my PPL I took him for a ride and gave him a supervised turn at the controls. He had no problem keeping wings level or making climbing and descending turns. I was stunned. What made it easier for him was that he was very light on the controls.
Man, you're amazing!! You're videos are so educational! Definitely the best teacher ever! I bet you are an amazing person outside the pilot world.
A whole new twist on the game “Simon Says”!
8:17 Simon has his artificial horizon on.
utuber52 lol he was cheating
Yaa... Simon cheats 😎 don’t blame him though... I’d freak out too..
how the hell else was he able to see his bank angles?
@@fpskoda467 That is exactly the whole point of the experiment: not being able to see anything else than speed and altitude
Excellent demonstration and comparison, helps a lot!
What a great experiment worth sharing widely to encourage a landing response to IMC.
Holy smokes. Very interesting and scary to see how quickly you can lose control without visual reference. I was on the seat of my pants.
It's not that easy in planes since they are way more stable than helicopters, this video made me have more respect to helicopter pilots
Wow! That is really cool, also kind of scary for the pilot.
Pilot behind the blanket banked to the left all three times. Wow. That’s the exact direction that Kobe’s pilot banked. This pilot thought he was going right but he was really going left. Wow. 🙏🏾🙏🏾 This explains a lot. Crazy how this was done a year ago.
It sorta does, but all of his instruments were working and he should have known how to use them. I can understand how he made a mistake and didn't, but it was avoidable.
Kevin Klassen Pilot was flying VFR and when he climbed out of the clouds I feel like he tried to quickly switch to IFR and he got disoriented.
Wow, looks like this is what happened with Kobe’s helicopter pilot. Spatial disorientation.
did you know kobe's copter made it to 2400 feet before the pilot got confused and banked by accident, 2500 feet was when the cloud cover ended. They were literally 100 feet away from making it to safety. So sad.
*1000ft*
@@unwelcomemotivation I don't think it was by accident. I think he was trying to climb above the terrain, turn 180 degrees, and head back to the Van Nuys/Burbank area. The pass he was flying through went from low ceiling to zero visibility rapidly. I think he realized that he messed up, tried to get back to a safe area, but then turned too quickly and became spatially disoriented which caused him to lose altitude.
@Inactive Account yes but if your watching this video if you go into clouds just going up helicopters capabilities or pilot error (spatially) could happen easy fast with copter
wow, shows a real classic "death spiral"
Yeah its how our equilibrium gets used to the bank. You think youre flying level, you feel completely flat and stable on your seat so the instruments must be faulty. Then after a while it will become unrecoverable. The graveyard spiral, its called.
In the uk you wouldn't need a blanket to practice this... We've always got enough clouds!😅😃
This is an excellent video, the most important thing to realize is the aircraft wants to rotate left. For those who fly watch and learn.
Sometime I drive on the freeway late at night and close my eyes. It's exhilarating.
wow. thanks for this video. super enlightening
This is such a cool idea. It's unfortunate in helicopter IFR training that the foggles do not fully block your view and we can't experience true IMC. I just wish there was a way to do something like this where the safety pilot could see the gauges and didn't have a blocked view.
That's the way I had learned my pilot training always always always trust your instruments
Oh shiiiit he even banked left without feeling it and wouldve crashed into that ridge in 10 seconds just like Kobes pilot.
I try doing the same when sitting in a plane, close the windows and feel is it going left or right. I was always wrong, never about up or down but left and right.
Nice vídeo and excelent training!!
Great training. Fantastic work. Much appreciated!
All helicopter pilots need this training.
I’m a fixed wing pilot, IFR certified. But in learning more about the complexity of flying helicopters, and with what’s demonstrated in this video, it seems that it takes an incredible amount of skill, and maybe even a little luck, to fly single pilot in the kind of situation that Kobe’s helicopter was in and not have an accident.
fantastic practice!!!!
nice idea...i will try that with my mosquito..good idea for IFR practise!!in my case it will be hard cause it is a single seat heli....will give it a try.thank you for the idea
Wait a minute do you see at 8:17 he turns back on the screen when it is supposed to be off
I'm a Fixed Wing Private Pilot with an Instrument Rating was curious about using secondary instruments to infer the bank. In an aircraft if we lost the Attitude Indicator and Turn Coordinator you would be able to infer that you were in a bank, and in what direction by using the Compass or Direction indicator. Likewise you can infer pitch by using the altimeter ie are you climbing or descending? Can similar techniques be applied to helicopter flight?
I just watched an old video where you had Bradley blind folded and he was trying to fly it and I found it hilarious and educational and now this video. Great video like always.
Yes I remember that video. That was fun, for me, not for Brad. He was freaking out, and rightfully so. It's really scary being completely disoriented and having no clue what's up and what's down.
Woo... impressive videos. That videos says it all basically. Well done.
Mischa, Simon. Your videos just keep getting better and better. Wow. Brilliant
that was stunning to see, and the fact that simon knew he had "lost it"
Great video for showing what can happen in a short period of time when IMC. Vertigo hits you like a ton of bricks. Unless you fly using instruments only, your body will feel a completely different sensation.....typically wrong.
11:38 Here is your answer:
No. Not a bit.
Reason:
The organ in the ear is a sensor for acceleration, not for attitude. You will crash without seeing the instruments, especially attitude indicator amd variometer, immediately.
that explains alot actually. I thought it was a straight up gyroscope but its actually an acelerometer
Joker Here is your answer. You should go to Wikipedia and read the article "Sense of balance". The vestibular system plays key role in this.
Awesome demonstration!! And most incredible is that he losses control and starts banking to the left..just like the sykorsky in California.
Im surprised he cant tell that they are doing sharp turnes just by his sense.
I dont know if you are a pilot or not but if you are a trainee you will see in the future that when you are in ifr conditions you lost most of your senses because they are heavily dependent on the visual reference and the senses you still feel are mostly false senses. For example feeling of climbing when you accelerate on level flight or feeling of a reverse turn after turning to level flight from a prolonged roll
If you drop all the visual cues you could be in any position if acceleration forces are gentle and smooth. Which is exactly why people crash, they get distracted and don't notice the aircraft turning and pitching and then out of nowhere a stall warning or sudden sound of air rushing around the cockpit, rpm increasing and with a bit of luck they can recover.
Try blindfolding yourself and stand on one leg. Sounds easy. I promise you won't have balance. The human body is very weird in how it's senses work.
Our senses basically suck!
@@badnewsreport3835 Damn I just tried it, closed my eyes and tried balancing on one leg. Didn't work at all
Wow great Video
Awesome video ......got to be scary lol
8:19 wait a minute... he can tell his bank angle
Wouldn’t something hanging in the cockpit help with this disorientation? Something like a plumb line or an air freshener (for a lack of better terms)???
I doubt it. G-force would just make it stay still. Thats why they couldn't feel it tilting.
Immediate left hand turn...
He's a good teacher.👍
I passed this recommendation up at the time he filmed it but I came back to watch it after the tragic Kobe Bryant crash in the fog!
Jeremy S What is clear, helicopter pilots need a lot more recurring practice flying blind with instruments.
@@sfdanceron1 No what they need is artificial terrain and elevation that is shown via heads up display so they always have a reference even in clouds. Or they need to land immediately.
@@nofurtherwest3474 I cant believe Kobe didnt have all the best tech in his helicopter.
Makes no sense
GJL Creative Studios it wasn’t his helicopter... it was a charter.
This pilot here had several times to try and try and get it right. Kobe’ pilot.... just once.Two pilots would have been a good idea...not going up in the first place would have been even better.
Amazing just the way it should be , like Airplane pilots
Kobe ending perfectly displayed.
I am a non pilot with a good understanding of helos and flight controls, flying in an r-22 with an instructor friend he gave me full controls (with him covering of course) on straight and level flight at about 4000 msl. I could not believe how hard it was to keep it going straight and level with correct power levels etc. Basically you just think of what you want to do and it just happens. It was truly scary and enlightening. I did get used to it but man it scared me
Amazing video, god with you as a teacher I’d be perfectly okay with learning.
I like it, but...How can you clear traffic/birds on your right side?
If you have a magnetic compass, Altimeter, and Airspeed indicator you can maintain straight and level flight, and actually perform most instrument maneuvers that don't require VHF reference.
"VHF reference" LOL!
@@zzodr why are you laughing. Are DME arcs, V airways and ILS/LOC not a thing or something?
You understand these are all done on VHF sources, right?
tommy edison is also a youtuber thats blind from birth, and he is realy a nice guy! maybe invite him to.
Excellent video. Great insights.
I do believe that someone who has always been blind could fly under IFR conditions better, if they had a way to read the instruments. In the paragraph below I describe attempting IFR flight at night in fog. The one thing that seemed to cause me the most trouble was my tendency to look for some visual reference to fly by, not finding it caused panic and the whole thing went downhill from there. I think it has something to do with subconscious uptake. When you learn to fly your subconscious mind takes over and keeps everything straight and level, but when you lose visual reference you resort to using your conscious mind and it's like learning to fly all over again, except you have less information available.
I've tried flying a simulation at night in fog, even with the artificial horizon it freaked me out. I would be flying along maintaining level flight, then I would glance at the AH and see a 45 degree bank in just a few seconds. Trying to recover from the bank often proved impossible. Flying above the fog where I could see the contrast between the cloud layer and the stars was easy, but once I lost all visual reference it turned into a nightmare within seconds. That was just a simm, I would never consider getting into an aircraft under those conditions for real.
awesome experiment. during a real flight, i mean, not knowing you're being tested, the loss of control tends to be faster and more violent, i believe, because you don't have the mindset the guy had, already knowing what was going on, and during a "real" flight, he wouldn't have had a second and third chances.
Cool and crazy idea
We had Molly on season 2 of our show "Insight." Few years back. Awesome lady. As is her mother.
Whoa, this was an awesome visual of the dangers of trusting your vestibular system. Thanks for posting this!
Some of your videos make me NOT want to become a helicopter pilot. This is one of them. 😨
kelvish111 sorry
That is what the training is for.
No instructor is going to let you go out until you're competent.
Now though, when you are admonished to stay away from IMC [instrument flying] after seeing this video you will take it very much to heart.
Wow! This training is like how one to become the helicopter! It's llike making the helicopter the extension of the pilot's body!
By far one of your best videos to date in regards to Heli training. Thank you for producing entertaining and informative helicopter videos. If I ever travel through Canada, I will try to stop in and say thanks in person. Im based out of Anchorage Alaska, and we have very similar environmental/terrain/weather... but I think you get more sunny days from your videos! If you make it to Alaska, please let me know!!!
Hey thanks for the offer. I would love to come up to Alaska some time. Hopefully sooner than later. Have a great day.
Wow this very educational
so can you explain why the pilot in kobes crash didn't use his instruments even though he had them
Because he got used to not using them.
We won’t know until the official NTSB report is published, but it seems he was flying VFR and didn’t have time to switch to IFR after he encountered IMC.
Am no expert but sounds like 2 pilots would have made a difference.Sad
Good IFR skills are very perishable. Just because you are rated doesn't mean you are proficient. This pilot was IFR rated and also certified to teach IFR with thousands of hours and was recertified last May. However the pilot was mostly working for an operation that was VFR only in their FAA Part 135 op spec. That means most of his time was spent flying in VFR conditions. Most pilots in their quiet moments will admit that instrument skills deteriorate within weeks of no practice or operation in IMC conditions fixed or rotary. Switching to instrument flight is not easy especially if you are not prepared to do so. It takes a different frame of mind than when flying visually.
Question what are the chances that your instruments can fail like this.
And is there a back up someone could use in case of emergency.
Thank you for your incredible knowledge
Have you seen the one where the brazillian heli-pilot crashes and kills the bride and everyone inside it? Is that what happens like in this video because it looks like he's flying through some shady fog/clouds.
Oh ya for sure. And even worse in that tragedy was that the helicopter they were in was absolutely not equipped with the right instruments for VFR into IMC. That pilot should have turned around when he saw the patch of fog.he had a couple chances to The fact that pilot managed to maintain a controlled flight as long as he did before crashing was just insane. Without the proper instruments and a complete blanket of fog, to rely on your instincts and very little instruments for as long
ok, I want to work this exercise - at some time.
Interesting, different aspect of instrument flying very cool
Damn Kobe should’ve hired this guy.
Great video. Amazing to see what we read about in action! Keep it up.
Great video! No, a blind person would not be better at controlling attitude, because the human vestibular system only provides relative attitude changes, based on angular acceleration. We also sense the direction of gravity to correct our sense of up vs. down.
These are only accurate in a steady-state position (stationary, or straight and level movement (flight)). They become useless in a moving / turning aircraft, which is why we need vision to correct our sense of a horizon.
Blind people use touch instead of vision (lean against furniture, their cane etc), when they are not in a steady position.
But, you can't touch the mountains around you in an aircraft. If you can, it's too late...
:)
BTW, I'm an instrument rated pilot.
Great video! Inventive real world training...keep up the good work!
huh...finally someone does real IFR training...good for you !!!
Silly question I'm sure, but could you use water in a clear water bottle as a way to know what the horizon is? I feel the surface of water in a bottle does a fairly good at being level regardless of how uneven the thing is it's set on.
I hate helicopters, but this was one of the best videos I've ever seen regarding no instruments/IFR! Good job!
Wow thanks, sorry you hate helicopters
I've spent some time on military helo's. The sh2 and 3's. Thanks for the response. Thanks for the great videos.
That's pretty cool, thanks for being here.
This should have been added the HAI PANNEL imo great work guys
He had all the instruments he needed to maintain control through a limited/partial panel scan. Of course that only comes with training and practice.
At my Flight Collage this was known as “90 seconds to live” (fixed wing)
I was wondering if it would feel a bit different fixed wing. Turns out at most approx 20 seconds different.
Holy moly that was scary for the quick drop
Great video.
Wow unbelievable so scary. Man can you come to Los Angeles and teach me how to fly. Seriously
Sunlight is a good way to tell if your rolling left or right js
That was amazing. Well done.
Reminds me of that scene in Nicolas Cage & Tommy Lee Jones' movie _Fire Birds,_ where Cage had to train in "The Bag", but his eye-dominance problem made it hard for him to rely on the monocle.
Looking away from one's panel can also trigger a bad situation even when a pilot is doing well with instrument flying. I've never even been in a rotor craft, much less flew one, but I would think that without a specific set of instruments the task of safely flying one is virtually impossible outside of VFR conditions. I would think you would need a speed reference, as well as a reference to your principal axes, as well as your altitude. So that would be 5 instruments as a minimum to safely fly in IMC in a rotary-wing aircraft. That would be my guess anyway.
Although from what I have seen with fixed-wing aircraft accidents the problem generally arises from a pilot disbelieving what their instruments are telling them and instead believing what their bodies are telling them, as opposed to not having the correct information at hand. This video does an excellent job to illustrate the fact that a pilot can never trust their body as a flight instrument, and this is mainly because our physiology is built around a grounded existence. The fact that our equilibrium system is based on fluid movement within our ears, and more importantly our ability to see, makes it an impossible task to use one's body for flight cues. It is very easy to disorient someone on the ground if you give varying cues to their various senses, such as giving the impression of their body doing one thing while what they are seeing is different. That is a big one, but not the only way to disorient someone by confusing their senses.
awesome!
This is a good one! I should stop flying through the clouds because I'm not IFR rated. I like the message.
Great Training Idea .
Would using a iPad with the instrument apps help if your main instruments went out?