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I want to know about - Movements of the aircraft |
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A human being is designed to travel at about 4 miles an hour facing forward, sometimes if we're feeling energetic we can travel a little faster but certainly when running or walking we'll be facing the direction in which we are moving. Contrast this with an aircraft where we travel at up to 600 an hour while we are often looking sideways. Our balancing system relies on the fact that we normally align our head with the direction of the movement of our body. If you don't believe this try running while looking sideways, or try running sideways while looking directly ahead. You will also realize that we rely upon our eyesight to assist the balancing system. The balancing system is in our middle ear.
If you are sitting in a stationary train at a station and another train begins to move it takes a few seconds to work out whether it's our train or another which is moving, this is because our eyes process information before the rest of our brain does. You will also have noticed that our eyes can pick up the slightest variation in level or uprightness. When we hang a picture on a wall, from a distance we are able to see if it is level or not with our eyes we don't usually need a spirit level to tell us. In an aircraft our balancing system and our visual system is not given information that we are used to. If we are flying in cloud, or at night, or sitting away from the window our eyes can not tell us whether we are level or not. In addition our balancing system is corrupted by the movement of the aircraft so that we can't tell us which way is up either. We could guess, or rather we could believe that we knew but we’d more than likely be wrong. When an aircraft is in a constant turn all the occupants will feel as if they are level and upright. The only reason that the pilots will know otherwise is by looking at their instruments. When the aircraft is turning it has an exact angle of bank in the same way that a motorcyclist leans a bike as it takes a corner at a particular speed. This means that the forces on your body are EXACTLY the same as they are on the ground even though you are turning at 600 mph. The problem is when the wings go back to the level position you won't feel level. You'll think you're turning the other way! When the aircraft levels out after takeoff you will get a distinct feeling of losing height, this is for several reasons but mainly because the sound of the engines reduce considerably a few minutes after takeoff and we interpret this as a change of vertical direction. If this happens at the same time that the plane reduces its rate of climb you will be convinced that the plane is descending. The fact is that the aircraft will not be descending despite what you feel. If you don’t believe this, when you’re next in a car as a passenger and the car has cruise control, get the driver to set the speed and then as it’s about to go up a hill close your eyes. It’s almost certain that you’ll think the car is gathering speed. Feeling is believing…but it’s not always the truth. |
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