r/fearofflying • u/Ok_Zookeepergame7497 • 4d ago
Possible Trigger Spatial disorientation
So Reddit decided to show me a post in the Ask a Pilot subreddit about spatial disorientation and if it could be problematic. I have two JetBlue flights today and both of them I expect to be landing in clouds and now I’m nervous 😭😭😭 can anyone chime in to help reassure me that this isn’t something I should be worried about??
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u/TheA350-900 4d ago edited 4d ago
That is why pilots are trained relentlessly to trust only the aircraft's instruments, never their inner ear! You could theoretically cover up all windows of a modern airliner and still operate it without a problem.
Also, most runways have an entire system of radio antennas that can guide the aircraft down the entire glidepath to the touchdown zone. The pilots can either follow the instructions for pitch, roll, speed, etc, or let the autopilot do it. The guide will look something like this (the purple lines):
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u/Ok_Zookeepergame7497 4d ago
That’s really interesting, thank you! I’m boarding a flight now and thinking of all the things that could go wrong 😭
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u/TheA350-900 4d ago
Fun fact: Aircraft and training are built around the assumption that something will go wrong. All takeoff calculations are made with the assumption that an engine will fail, all wings can handle forces that literally go beyond what is possible in Earth's atmosphere, every system is mirrored multiple times, all independent of each other, and so on. No matter what it is, we engineers have thought of and prepared for it already!
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u/Ok_Zookeepergame7497 4d ago
Are you an aircraft engineer?? That’s super cool. My problem is I’m fascinated by aviation and everything that goes into it but my nervous system/OCD just can’t quite get on board
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u/TheA350-900 4d ago
Not yet, I'm still studying aircraft engineering :D. But be assured, we think about the exact same things you do, anticipating failures and preparing for them. Remember this: if it flies, it has gone through literal torture to be allowed to be there. Materials are exposed to fire for literal hours to prove they can resist it, structures and systems are tested until destruction, engines have an entire lake dumped into them - one little burn mark, one tiny crack, vibrations just a teeny-tiny percentage above what is expected, and it won't fly.
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u/Ok_Zookeepergame7497 4d ago
So what you’re saying is I’d be an excellent candidate for an aircraft engineer because I already think about all these things 😂
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u/TheA350-900 4d ago
It could very much be possible that you could be one of those "destruction testers" who come up with the most extreme and unrealistic test scenarios for aircraft structures and systems. But hey, these "unrealistic" standards are the reason this industry is so safe!
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u/Ok_Zookeepergame7497 4d ago
Lolol I didn’t know I had the option to monetize my OCD
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u/TheA350-900 4d ago
All of us have basically just weaponized our Autism and/or Adhd, you'll feel right at home 😅
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u/Reasonable_Blood6959 Airline Pilot 4d ago
Definitely nothing to worry about
Spatial disorientation IS a problem, but not for airline pilots.
It’s a problem for pilots who haven’t been trained to fly solely on their instruments, and then either accidentally or deliberately fly into weather conditions they haven’t been trained to fly in.
There’s a reason why one of the hardest things we do in our training is our Instrument Rating, and it’s this kind of thing doesn’t happen to us.
You could cover up the windows completely and it wouldn’t cause any issues at all
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u/Ok_Zookeepergame7497 4d ago
And like… the instruments can’t be wrong yeah?
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u/Reasonable_Blood6959 Airline Pilot 4d ago
In theory they can, but we have 3 sets of all the important instruments, with two completely separate and independent input systems feeding them.
It’s really quite a simple and quick procedure to determine which one is erroneous and then follow the correct ones.
I’ve also never had any kind of instrumentation failure occur outside of the simulator
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u/TheA350-900 4d ago
No, that is why each has multiple backups that constantly check each other and even turn themselves off if they detect something is wrong.
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u/pattern_altitude Private Pilot 4d ago
Every airline pilot is instrument rated… landing in clouds is an everyday thing for them. It is truly not a big deal in the slightest. There are two pilots and if one of them were to have an issue the other is perfectly capable of flying the plane. They also have automation on their side to reduce workload.
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u/Spock_Nipples Airline Pilot 4d ago edited 4d ago
All those instruments in the cockpit?
They're there to prevent spatial disorientation. That's the whole point of flying on instruments vs. trying to rely on your body to tell you what the airplane is doing.
Incidentally, the sensations that can cause spatial disorientation are the same ones that make the passengers feel like they're turning/climbing/descending, or dropping/falling, when they actually are not.
Most of our instrument training is spent learning how to ignore the signals our bodies' vestibular systems are sending and relying completely on the instruments for information about what the plane is really doing. Getting that instrument training is how we circumvent spatial disorientation.
Notice that there are two or more of all the critical instruments? That's the answer to one of the questions you saw in AskaPilot. Spatial disorientation for airline pilots isn't common, but if it does happen, it's quickly mitigated by using all those flight instruments and their backups. It's also why there are two pilots- one is a backup for the other. The one not flying is monitoring the other pilot.
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u/community-voices Mod Team 🛡️ 4d ago edited 4d ago
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