lol...good post! well, if ya wanna really know, the instruments are running on 3 different systems: vacuum, electrical, and pitot-static (static pressure and pressure variances). also, a good gps unit will keep you outta the trees. given that, all else failing, i do have a skydiver's certification, and yes i probably would pack my own and bring it with me if and when i get my plane. as i will probably be living near the carribean soon, i will get a plane with floats and a liferaft as well! all seriousness aside.....a good analogy: concerning mechanical failure of your computer or internet connection, you should always have a market stop order placed at all times. i like ninjatrader because it lets you use a simulated stop order but at the same time places a real live stop order 'just in case'. it also makes it quicker to exit as the order just needs to be altered instead of entered when the simulated stop gets hit. concerning failure of your indicators, or better yet, your strategy in a market, one should always have good bookeeping/logging skills so you can go back and see why things broke down. for instance, i was reading the superego/tony oz thread and noticed the printout of tony's account, and the statistics that he got from it....like % profitable during these hours, and these sizes, etc.... this, imho, is the true way to professional risk management. not only realizing proper risk/reward situations in the market, but also realizing your own strategy(s) and how it plays out over the longer term. how great would it be to find out that 70% of your losers came at or around the same times during the day????
Your fix will not work. Most all pilots have one very serious dissadvantage: their power plant. If you want to become skilled in acrobatics in a glider you have only one instrument you can count upon. Taping the indicator panel is a primo practice as a way to develop skills. Anyone who flies can put the weight on a string anywhere they want in the cockpit and when it is hanging down straight it doesn't mean the ship is under control. If I practice eliminating all control surfaces from being able to perform, there is little connection to what the string and weight would be doing. Once control surfaces fail to function I am disconnected from running the show. The rule for what to do is universal among most risk oriented stuff. Don't do anything to interfere with the rest position of the design of the mechanism. The design will solve the problem by reconnecting itself to the system it operate within. When a reconnection is made you do the SOP for recovery and safety. Under really fine tuned conditons to eak out performance in a glider especially when competing (competing in gliding is defined as in sauiling; if you see another ship, you are competing), just resist the controls to the minimum degree necessary. The design of the ship is such that it knows how to get you there if you resist the least. If you are flying in the dark and you can't read the indicators and you are under power in a gravity field, it is just a situation that you have built for yourself through a series of irrational decisions founded on not knowing what is going on. when I set up a gliding situation as out of control, I do it just like I would do wsh trades. I do it for practice to be sure I haven't starting thinking extraneuous stuff about how it all works. I tape my indicators as SOP occassionally so I get back to understanding how to pick up a thermal and center on it and max out the ride. After you trim the sails or surfaces, you can go about taking notes on how to tune the rigging or get worn parts replaced that show up at the oddest times. In gliding, the kewlest thing is how you calibrate yourself (which is a lot easier than if you fly under power).
jack, i didn't know you flew sailplanes....cool! i'd like to try that out sometime. the funniest thing; well, the scariest thing that i ever did was intentionally stall into a 5 turn spin from 10k to 5k in 10 seconds, in the middle of the night with the indicators covered up, over the largest alligator reserve in the world. (had to add that last part!! but true!!!) plum...its true, there are many situations where a weight (milk bottle they used to use) with a string fails you. think about what happens in a tight turn. detaching the mind and body is one of the first things mastered as an instrument pilot. even in a shallow turn, after 10-15 seconds, your body recalibrates itself and thinks its level again. when you turn back to level, your body thinks its turning the other way! (see if you can notice this on your next airplane trip)
I agree, calibrating yourself is one of the kewlest things you can do. Depending on who you are, this can be done with or without a power plant. Conversely, when someone else helps you calibrate, it can be significantly better than self-calibration. Further, I believe joint calibration is probably best, given all the facets and variations available in calibration.
[1] Lots of hard work. [2] Several winning trades based on (1). [3] Many losing trades outside of (1), losing money from (2), and then some. [4] Anger. [5] Sadness. [6] Realization of (1-5), swear off of (3). [7] Go to Step (1).
So true. If you give up energy too fast, it is so important to have someone with you. We have a desert cover out here called creosote bush. On approach and the two turns we usually sit about 800 feet up. I use the creosote to calibrate myself casually. I will never forget one run where coming down too fast really uncalibrated me, Oxygen deprivation and then getting it back. I could not have been an inch over 400 hundred feet. When my co pointed this out (and we both had calibrated reset instuments) by asking if the creosote was growiing really fast for the Spring, I got properly oriented and was at risk for the landing. We just pull the spoilers to drop out of space and hover to a rest on the tarmac. Downdrafts out here run as "bad" as the thermals so we use the 800 feet as a real safety net. Not good to sneak over to the to the descent with no energy. In the market it is an outstanding exercise to keep checking absoluteindicators against relativistic indicators.
Plum- I'm forwarding this to my dad, who was a Navy pilot of 10+years..I know he'll enjoy it as much as I. great analogy. -mo