Spatial Disorientation, by USHST and VAI, September 2024
Promoted in the EASA Community to the benefit of safety.
VAI video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akMbHJcwA3M&feature=youtu.be
ROTOR Media Spotlight on Safety: Spatial Disorientation, The Unforgiving Killer
https://rotormedia.com/spotlight-on-safety-sd-the-unforgiving-killer-2/
By Jill Browning and Tyson Phillips, September 11, 2024
VAI/Colten Gonzalez-Hill Design
Research has shown that pilots often fail to recognise and recover from spatial disorientation, in part because of confusing sensory signals. In the September 2024 VAI Spotlight on Safety, Tyson Phillps, AT Systems, explains spatial desorientation and how pilots can train to avoid and overcome it.
Launched in 2017, USHST Helicopter Safety Enhancement (H-SE) 127A, Recognising and Training for Degraded Visual Environment (DVE) Conditions Conducive to Spatial Disorientation (SD), is one of the safety enhancements that USHST developed to address the leading causes of fatal helicopter accidents identified in their analysis.
A dedicated H-SE team examined related accidents and conducted an industrywide survey. Results indicated a gap in both the fundamental understanding of spatial desorientation and a pilot’s ability to recognise the conditions conducive to it.
These VAI Spotlight on Safety article and video present techniques to enhance decision-making, improved training methods and tools including simulators, and techniques to prevent and recover from possible spatial desorientation.
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