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Flying, whether commercial, military or private, can lead to a pilot becoming spatially disorientated. Such episodes are often attributed to inadequacies in a pilot’s ability to sense changes in aircraft attitude but it is often forgotten that the dynamic environment of an aircraft is inherently deceptive. The aircraft is not always doing what it feels to be doing however good one’s senses may be. In commercial and military aviation, incidents and accidents attributable to disorientation are carefully investigated and the subject is well researched. While many of the principles learned in these types of aviation are universally relevant, there has been relatively little work done on spatial disorientation as it affects private flying.

This survey aims to learn about those circumstances in flight when you, as pilot or co-pilot, became confused about the true attitude of the aircraft, or worse, when you suddenly became aware that the attitude of the aircraft was significantly different from what you had thought it to be. While the term ‘attitude’ refers strictly to roll, pitch and heading of the aircraft, for the present purposes it should also include confusion or errors in the height above ground level. Navigational errors are excluded unless they also led to errors in attitude or ground clearance.

The first part of the survey asks about yourself and the type of flying that you do. The second part asks for a brief description of any disorientating incidents you may have experienced. If there are several such incidents, please indicate how many there have been and confine your attention to the most significant two. If you have not experienced any form of disorientation please indicate this also and return the form. Nil returns are just as important. If necessary, please continue on a separate piece of paper. The survey is anonymous. However, if you want one of the organisers of the survey to contact you to obtain further details of an incident, please include a contact phone number.

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Personal details
Your age
Male/Female		Male Female
Are you a		Student pilot Qualified pilot
Licence held		Fixed wing Helicopter
Do you have :
IMC rating		Yes No
Night rating		Yes No
Instrument rating		Yes No
Total Number of PPL hours flown

If you have NEVER experienced a spatial disorientation incident, as defined in this introduction, please click here and submit the questionnaire

If you HAVE ever experienced a spatial disorientation incident, as defined in this introduction, please click here and continue with the questionnaire

Disorientation report
Aircaft type
Total hours at time of incident
Hours on type at time of incident
Did you have any of the following:
A subjective experience of uncertainty of your aircraft's attitude or motion?		Yes No
A subjective experience that your aircraft's attitude or motion was at odds with reality (as indicated by the aircraft's instruments)?		Yes No
No perception that the attitude or motion of your aircraft was becoming unusual until the ground appeared in the 'wrong' place, or you detected that the instuments looked wrong		Yes No
What caused you to realise that you were disorientated and/or brought you back to a fully orientated state?
Do you consider that the disorientation you experienced presented a hazard to flight safety?		Yes No
Have you ever had disorientation training other than the 'unusual attitudes' training in the PPL syllabus?		Yes No
Have you ever had aerobatic training?		Yes No
If you have had disorientation or aerobatic training, do you think that it was useful at the time of your disorientation incident?		Yes No
What effect did the incident have upon your subsequent flying?
Did you share this experience with other pilots?		Yes No
It would help us if you can give a brief description of the incident with particular attention to the following: environmental conditions (eg cloud, night, over water, in turbulence); aircraft manoeuvre; problems with aircraft instruments (eg instrument failure, misinterpretation); effects of human factors (eg fatigue); sortie preparation; communication