RICHARD PISACRETA wrote:
> From what I read in the paper, Kennedy was not qualified to
> do instrument flying. He had just gotten his license which requires
"Visual
> flight rules", i.e., you can only fly on clear days and nights, and must
> stay clear of clouds. Pilots are also required to get a weather briefing
> before they take off. The briefing would warn a new pilot about conditions
ahead. I am
> saddened by his tragedy. I am only glad that his mother
> didn't live long enough to have to suffer through this tragedy.
I read that he did some training at Flight Safety in Florida, which is
about as good as it gets at training pilots. Still, with only about 200
hours, to be flying something as complex as a Saratoga, at night, in haze,
over water, without IFR training...I suspect that few pilots find the
results very surprising.
---------------
Re. the disorientation, there was a REALLY good article titled simply "The
Turn" in Atlantic magazine sometime in the late 80s/early 90s. The article
described the early pilots' certainty that they could fly "by the seat of
their pants", and their resistance to the conflicting information that they
got from the early "attitude indicators" ("It works until I fly into
clouds"...).
As I write this, NBC News reports that JFK Jr's plane was in a steep dive
when it crashed. That sounds to me like a "graveyard spiral" - a blind spin
exascerbated by the pilot's inability to figure out why he is descending.
The natural reaction is to pull up, which simply tightens the spin if the
wings aren't level.
Paul Smith
Alverno College
Milwaukee
