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Summary

  • The environment we are best adapted to has us moving about the surface of the earth, experiencing gravity of one g.
  • We have reasonably well developed senses of touch, taste, and smell.
  • We have good abilities to hear.
  • We can maintain our balance if we don’t change our movement patterns either subtly or too quickly and always maintain good contact with the ground.
  • We have quite good capabilities to resolve images even a some distance. With our two eyes and a good range of motion we can cover a considerable field of view.
  • We are limited in that we must either be looking quite directly at an object or notice its motion to reorient eyes to resolve an image. We can also encounter problems in resolving images that have indistinct edges.
  • While colour determination is useful it is rather limited resolution at distances.
  • Our direct distance measuring capabilities provided by our binocular vision are similarly only effective at short range.

We must understand that when we have to compensate for tasks and environments that we are not well adapted to, this is stressful.  When we push these limits we increase our risk substantially. Often pilots either do not understand or believe in these limits, so instructors have an important task in this regard as they can significantly affect the future behaviour of their students.

Further, just as every aircraft needs a pre-flight, so does the pilot. A good start is the “I’M SAFE” checklist. Pilots should check how Illness, Medication, Stress, Alcohol, Fatigue, and Emotions could affect their performance. Understanding the technical processes of flight does no good if the pilot is not fit to execute them.