McGiver

From McGiver's hanger:

RE: ATTITUDE CONFUSION

Whenever you are called to pilot, take a travel trailer level with you. You want a 360 degree level, so it's either going to be a concave one where the bubble can wander around the perimeter, or a cross(NSEW). The unit should be light.

When you get to where you know the tarmak is level, pause and push a stik-um putty ball(dime store, toys'rus) onto some area of the panel. Then take the level and carefully press it on and center the bubble.

If the attitude indicator goes bonkers or it's screwed up and you have no visual, you now know how the plane sits respective the ground.

TonyC

Hanger:



Hangar:



A bubble level will only tell you about the direction of acceleration, either due to the gravitational pull of the earth (while you're sitting motionless on the ramp, taxiway, runway, etc.) or due to acceleration or deceleration (changes in speed) or turning. Your bubble level will make for a good indicator of coordinated turns, but that's about it. You should be able to keep it centered in a turn, so that means it does you no good in determining where the ground is. It could be a 5° turn or a 75° turn -- if the turn is coordinated, the bubble will remain centered.


Not all hard surfaces on an airport are tarmac (not tarmak) (short for tarmacadam). It's far more likely they are concrete or asphalt.

Any more advice on airport surfaces or structures or DIY modifications to aircraft avionics that we should know about?






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JohnBurke

My understanding has always been (based on sage, OLD advice) to carry a brick, duck, cat, dog, and set of car keys on every flight.

When disoriented and unsure which way is up, toss out the car keys. Follow them. That is not up.

In the event of car key loss, toss the brick. Use similar procedure as car keys. Stay with it this time. Unless in an exceptionally strong updraft, one will be traveling down. This path will eventually coincide with earth, and is useful for finding the ground.

Under wet instrument conditions, having expended the car keys and the brick, toss out the duck. They do well in wet weather. Follow the duck.

Be sure to keep cat and duck separate until keys, brick, and duck have been used. If still uncertain which way is up, toss cat. Cat lands on feet. Feet side is down. (Note: only works with declawed cat; sticky cats with claws may attach to *up* an thus be less reliable). Keep dog separate from cat until cat has been used.

The dog, of course, is there to bite the pilot if he attempts to touch anything.

This counsel has been in solid practice for the better part of 80 years, and continues to work very well.

Leave the trailer level at home. The dog could choke on it.

tomgoodman

The cat plus a slice of buttered bread can also serve as an emergency power generator.....

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jk3xBhqcjqY

JohnBurke

There was an unfortunate DARPA experiment on behalf of the USAF some years ago in which a B52 was brought out of AMARC storage, and the landing gear removed. Buttered toast was glued butter-side-out on the lower surface of the wings, and cats were affixed using epoxy, by their feet, to the upper surface.

When the jacks were removed, the aircraft remained in a levitated condition at approximately 19' above the hangar surface, unable to touch down on the butter side, and unable to touch down on the cat back side. The BUFF remained off the ground for nearly 16 years, despite the best efforts to bring it back down.

McGiver

Actually, inclinometers have been used in airships with success and has part of the instrumentation. But my presentation was based on crash cases recorded in the NTSB files where pilots and copilots were not able to sense a bank angle due to lack of visiual ques. There were 3 cases where it was obvious a simple solution was sought.

TonyC

Such instrumentation is only good to display skid or slip in a turn. If the bubble is centered, the turn is coordinated. If it moves to one side or the other in the turn, it indicates a skid, or a slip, too much rudder or not enough rudder.

The indication is the same regardless of the angle of bank. Therefore, it is completely useless as a means of determining which way is down.



visual cues ...

Your simple solution is not a solution.






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rickair7777

An airship is the only place this might work.

In an unusual attitude, there are going to unusual g-forces in who-knows-what direction, which when combined with gravity will cause a level to not work the way does in the hands of a carpenter.

This is a very, very bad idea and no professional aviator would dream of suggesting it.

As JB suggested, the only use for a level would be to throw it out the window and watches which way it goes,

JohnBurke

Actually, a level might have some additional value if mounted in a straight-edge, as it could be duct taped in place to fix a broken seat...or use with chewing gum affixed to one end to retrieve a contact lens dropped down a storm grate in the ramp.

Or maybe used to level an RV.

I dont believe I've ever seen a NTSB recommendation to tape a level from an aitomotive recreational vehicle to the instrument panel to help prevent spatial disorientation. I'd like a reference to that report.

TonyC

Oh, you won't find these things in actual technical publications like NTSB recommendations. Sometimes you have to think outside of the box.


He's just trying to MacGyver it.


Umm, maybe McGiver? Here's some of his recent handiwork:








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