DITTO Yikes. As you're still with us, congrats on excellent piloting on getting that back on the ground and walking away from it.
Low IMC and night - I learned (at least in my book) that these two don't mix very well. Had ~ 900 hours under the belt. Tons of night time. IFR current and proficient, and had recently completed a long round trip XC in hard IMC with approaches down to minimums. So when I had a few hours to kill one night and the weather showed low IMC, I thought "hey I'm really comfortable flying at night, and really comfortable flying in IMC, so this should be a piece of cake." Scheduled a short XC. I don't know if others have had similar experience, but the combination of night and IMC caused EXTREME disorientation almost from the moment I lifted off. Pure black hole out the windscreen with moonlight blocked by thick clouds. Have never had to work harder on my scan to keep the wings level and fight the urge to follow my senses instead of the attitude indicator. A minute or two in I remember thinking I had a made a big mistake, bitten off more than I could chew. Had never felt that before. Settled down a bit, flew the instruments, and disorienting feeling subsided a little bit, but flipped on the A/P for the rest of the flight just to make sure I was safe. The approaches (I did two as it was a round trip flight) were beyond nerve wracking. I had done many approaches in actual IMC to near or actual minimums with no problem. But something about the combination of ceilings at minimums and night made it seem much harder. I went back to my training and experience and executed both well, but once back at home base, I kissed the ground after parking and vowed that I would never mix low IMC and nighttime ever again.
Interesting. I don't find night IMC any different than day IMC - Look outside, can't see anything. It's just a different color.
I wonder why it was so disorienting for you?
Maybe the amount of light; the additional stress of reading low light / back lit instruments vs a fully lit cockpit. Just guessing.Interesting. I don't find night IMC any different than day IMC - Look outside, can't see anything. It's just a different color.
Maybe it's because I did a fair number of the training flights for my instrument at night? But I never felt that way even during training. The only time I got really disoriented in IMC was my first time ever going into IMC, and that was during the day.
But what I'm really curious about is how many other pilots have experienced the same thing?
Duct tape. Seriously, I had to buy another prop. The one that broke came apart at the base of the blade. The hub was still bolted to the flange. I put the new prop on it, and flew it maybe 6 more times. It was a death trap, collection of parts all operating in close formation. I sold it to another sap, and got a much more safe aircraft. I bought a Vari-Eze. At least it didn't try to kill me - much.
At first I thought I could be reading my own story! I too saw a Decathlon for rent and took an aerobatic course.
The Beggs-Mueller spin recovery method was discovered that exact way.
But what did Mueller do?
That Beggs for an answer.But what did Mueller do?
He apparently independently found and tested the method in Germany at the same time. Both Beggs and Mueller wrote articles in the IAC magazine describing their results and advocating the method.But what did Mueller do?
Beggs-Mueller is an EMERGENCY recovery method, if the prescribed recovery method fails to work.