Freaky! hood work, and a renewed appreciation for ANR headsets

[woodstock]

today was a beautiful day to fly! too bad I couldn't see any of it.

this was my first time under the hood. what a weird feeling. the ones my CFI had looked like those dark eyeglass covers you see people wear who just had eye surgery. (sad to say, I've worn those things myself a few times). It attaches to the headset and you flip em down. They don't fit my headsets so I had to wear his. He has Dave Clarks, no ANR, and I have to say I'm not ever ever ever ever going back to non-ANR headsets. He wore mine and we were both impressed by the difference - he, much more favorably than I, sad to say.

at any rate, after we had leveled out he had me flip them down. at first I kept trying to peek reflexively - ugh - didn't like it. good thing I trust my CFI!! you are relying on them to be your eyes for you.

what is funny is that my first several lessons I was constantly in the cockpit - it took forever to get me out of the cockpit, and now I rarely look at the instruments (which isn't optimal, I know). This flight was completely on instruments.

once I got used to it thought it was kinda neat. you see how responsive the plane is, more so than I do when just looking out and feeling it (not sure if this is normal). I don't mean to say I couldn't see/feel what was happening before, but it somehow doesn't seem as egregious when you are just looking outside. when you are watching the attitude indicator move around you realize wow, just a touch and it takes off.

so we did straight and level for a while, then a 180 as if we were in the clouds, a few times. The first time he said just let me time it, if you are at the correct bank it will be one minute. I was pretty close to dead on after the minute - hooray!

then we did unusual attitudes & recovery. nose too high, steep bank: put nose down first (break possible stall) then power in and level the wings using feet and then hands (typical stall recovery).

nose too low, steep bank: first level wings, you don't want to overload them. pull power back some, assertively (I was being to namby pamby with it) and then raise pitch to get you back where you need to be.

a few times he had me close my eyes, he said he was going to put it into an unusual attitude and I was to take a look and then put us where we needed to be. I did ok there, but as I was doing it he then (purposely) told me to check the power setting and that was just enough distraction to upset the applecart. (I believe I said at this point "WHAT THE HELL"). that was to show me that I need to take quicker glances (i.e. become more familiar with it) and don't get distracted and definitely don't do anything too quickly. the mantra is still "small corrections".

(I need to write up a few more of my mantras I think, I have a few. "pitch power trim", "aviate, navigate communicate", that sort of thing.)

came back in, one go-around (oops) and then one landing. I still have to work on everything on final. I seem to be setting everything up ok, feel good, it's all the stuff compressed at the end that I have to work on. then again today was a fairly direct crosswind, whereas on Monday night it was completely calm and I felt great doing pattern work.

this is my third time back after my hiatus!!

 

[Brian Austin]

Outstanding! I loved hood work, including unusual attitudes. My CFI got pretty aggressive with them, too, taking us well into the yellow in some dives. Kinda fun.

 

[woodstock]

you know, once I got used to it, I thought it was really cool. I also noticed that once we were in a turn I didn't feel like we were turning anymore. could be very disorienting.

 

[Greebo]

That's a great thing to learn with your CFI in the plane, trust me. I did a spatial disorientation simulator at an AOPA open house a couple years ago - they put you in a box and start it rotating very very slowly, and gradually increase its spin rate, but so slowly you don't know you're turning.

Meanwhile, in the box you're looking at a screen showing straight and level flight, and all you're doing is maintaining it. Then controller asks you to ident...

You turn your head to look for the ident button and ***WHAM*** diziness, lurching feelings... all the things they warn you about.

Lesson learned: NEVER trust your body if you can't see and verify what you feel.

Here's a tip for your hoodwork and your scan - try to develop a routine pattern of looking at instruments in a scan like:
1 ) AI - Airspeed - AI - Heading - AI - Altimeter - AI - Turn Coordinator - AI - VSI - AI - NAV Indicators
2 ) Repeat 1
3 ) AI - Oil and Pressure Gagues
4 ) Repeat 1
5 ) Repeat 1
6 ) AI - Power settings and other switches
7 ) Go to 1

Main point being you dont want to fixate or exclude anything - but the 6pack and navs are the items you check most often, but not without checking everything else periodically too.

You sound like you'll be a great IR pilot when you get there.

 

[BruceAir]

Next time you practice recoveries from unusual attitudes under the hood, ask your instructor to try the following method (which was passed on to me by another instructor years ago).

Instead of having the instructor set up the unusual attitude and then having you recover, close your eyes, and have the instructor give you instructions to establish and roll out of turns, set up gentle climbs and descents, and combinations of those fundamental maneuvers.

For example, I tell my students to do their best at establishing a standard-rate turn (eyes closed). I let the turn progress through at least 90 degrees and then tell the student to roll out of the turn and establish level flight (eyes still closed--it's not time for the surprise yet). Then I ask the student to initiate another standard-rate turn, in either the original or opposite direction. Again, we fly through at least 90 degrees of turn (assuming, of course, that we are, in fact, turning). Finally, I ask the student to open those peepers and go through the recovery process.

I usually do this maneuver without the hood or other view-limiting device a couple of times first and let students recover visually. They're always impressed at how screwed-up their vestibular system is, even when only gentle turns are involved. Later, we move on to recoveries by reference to instruments, and then recoveries without an AI.

Give this method a try. It will impress upon you how important it is to develop a good scan, and how quickly and profoundly you can get messed up if you consciously (or unconsciously) react to what you feel is happening while running checklists, reading charts, etc. in IMC.

 

[John J]

Bruce;

Thank you for the tip. I will do it next under the hood. I enjoy working partial panel under the hood especially doing Vertical S's, timed climbs and descents. It is fun to see how close you are to the time set by the CFI. Also I practice flying the old "1,2 3 system", "Needle, Ball Airspeed" and Wiskey Compass. Working under the hood with the basics is a nice workout.

John J

 

[woodstock]

wow, excellent advice, thank you. stuff to print out and think about. will ask my CFI about this for next time.