SIGNPOSTS ALOFT

six Tango maintain 2000 on Final Approach now do not acknowledge further transmission of no transmission received for a 5sec period abandon the radar approach proceed direct to the aou compass locator execute an ILS approach contact Los Angeles Tower 118 Point ner ner six Tango turn right heading 235 235 new heading maintain 2,000 6 and 1 half miles from touchdown turn right heading 245 245 new heading n six t go third to land Runway 25 left wi 250 de at 7 knots 5 and 3/4 mil from touchdown 245 The Heading GL path interception and 1 half mile 2 four five the heading 5 one half miles touch down no Glide path get normal rate of descent 245 The Heading passing the Los Angeles AIS out Compass locator on glide path 2 four5 the heading on [Music] course four and 34 on glide path on course 245 The Heading turn left heading 2 43 2 43 new heading 4 one half miles from touch down on glide B 3 and 1/ 12 miles from touchdown 15 ft above Glide path adjust descent turn right heading 24 Niner 24 Niner new heading on glide path turn left heading 247 onl path 247 the lined up with the left edge of the runway passing the middle marker take over complete your Landing contact Los Angeles Tower 18 point a [Music] an airport is busy fascinating excited people hurrying to travel to far off places the hustle and bustle of planes arriving and departing 88 Los Angeles ground call for taxi but in the background there is a kind of drama enacted here that few people ever see it holds a Fascination all its own clearance delivery ner 6 Tango ATC clears TN Bonanza 6 Niner 6 Tango to the Denver Airport VI Victor 208 Victor 8 cross Wilmington intersection at or above 6,000 maintain 8,000 propellers set for takeoff magnetos Che freedom and travel of flight controls check altimer clock and Gyro check doors and windows closed locked check landing gear circuit breakers Fu boost okay we're ready to roll Los Angeles Tower 9er six Tang goes ready 9er six Tango Los Angeles Tower Runway 25 left cleared for takeoff contact dep par control 1243 after [Music] cop gear Los Angeles departure control twin Bonanza 69er 6 Tangles Airborne 25 left twin bananza ner six Tango Los Angeles departure control radar contact crossing the shoreline maintain heading 250 for radar Vector to Victor 208 report leaving 7,000 hello there welcome aboard 696 tanko your co-pilot I'm happy to say is my son Jim I think maybe Jim this might be a good time to tell just what's happening here in the cabin as you can see we're flying through heavy overcast we can't see more than a few yards so we now have to use our instruments to tell us where we are and what the aircraft is doing this sort of instrument flight is necessary anytime visual reference is lost this loss of vision can be caused by Haze bad weather or even just a dark knight the instruments are controlling our flight path automatically but it's still the Pilot's responsibility to program the autopilot monitor the instruments and be prepared to take over manually we're also being tracked and assisted by men on the ground using radar ner six Tango out of 7,000 Bonanza ner six Tango Roger your position 6 miles west of Wilmington intersection contact Los Angeles cator 126.0 n this kind of flying is a far cry from the old days believe me in the early days the airplane was more a toy than a TBE barnstorming Pilots risked their lives and thrilled all of us with the air [Music] circus early day Pilots flew entirely by their senses sight balance Direction seat of the pants flying they called it and they were good at it there wasn't much they couldn't do with an airplane except flying the clouds whenever they tried something went wrong and usually someone was killed of course those early planes didn't have the instruments we now know the pilots needed today the law demands that every plane be instrument equipped but some so-called weather accidents still happen why well let's investigate one of these accidents A Private Pilot and three friends were returning home at dusk as Darkness began to fall it became more difficult to see clouds and suddenly they were actually in the clouds the plane was reported missing and a search was started I see Colonel Richards I wonder if I might ask you a few questions just here for a moment how long has been as the search and rescue mission been operating about 72 hours now it started last Monday morning uh how many planes have been involved in the search 35 planes planes from the Air Force Civil Air Patrol uh the United States Navy and the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Aro Squadron this is a difficult thing I know for you to answer Colonel but what do you think the chances are of uh survival for these Fells well of course uh we don't like to take any negative attitude on a thing like this but from past experience and searches in this type of weather this type of terrain this is the period of the year a white plane on a white background of snow it's very difficult we participated in the search and shared some of the frustrations of the colonel and his men unfortunately the plane was hidden beneath a blanket of snow and the search finally had to be called off later the snow melted and the wreckage was discovered yes four men died here needlessly so we call this a typical weather accident a pilot a good one but not qualified not equipped for the kind of weather he found himself in this plan plane was actually torn apart in the air by the violent maneuvers of a totally disoriented pilot now keeping in mind what you have just seen I want you to listen to a tape recording of another pilot who was not prepared for what he encountered this one is flying a welle equipped twin engined airplane but he too is not an instrument pilot he will lose control of the aircraft within 30 seconds after he enters the clouds 64 Alpha are you equipped and qualified to fly instruments I have enough instruments I 18 hour but I have not a on of yet 64 Alpha and what are your intentions to come on in rer 64 Alpha are you requesting emergency authority to descend through the IFR conditions to land all possible I am requesting emergency land if I could get down 64 Alpha descend and maintain 4,000 [Applause] overy make immediate uh 11 64 alha 64 Alpha if you in a spin release your controls 6 more out are you in a spin over yes yes R 64 alha release your controls over controls release over R straighten your run [Applause] please set the 64 Alpha watch radar contact lost radar contact a that moment the plane crashed and the pilot and these two passengers were killed we at Moody Institute of science are deeply concerned about these crashes because we're convinced that most of them are completely unnecessary why then did they happen we've studied the problem from many angles modern aircraft and instrument design the nature of the so-called graveyard spiral and the many human factors involved we have a growing conviction that the most basic part of the problem is a widespread misconception concerning the human balance mechanism now if you're a pilot what you will see and hear in the next few minutes could well be the best life insurance you could have Jeff now we all know that we can walk about with our eyes shut and maintain our balance but did you know that a pilot can't fly with his eyes shut with his eyes shut he can't tell whether he's flying straight turning climbing or diving oh I know there are some that won't agree with that statement many feel that all that we need to maintain our balance is the inner ear sense but this can be a very dangerous misconception the subject for our demonstration is a gymnast he has a highly developed sense of balance and sense of direction we're going to blindfold Don so that he will have to rely on just the information coming from his inner ears to try and tell us what's happening are you ready yes I'm turning to the right I'm turning to the right I'm turning to the right I'm turning to the right still turning to the right now I'm slowing down I've begun to slow down slowing down slowing down slower I've stopped I'm stopped are you sure yes now I'm turning to the left and this time faster I'm turning to the left are you dizzy no all right take hand fold oh boy now I am dizzy look at those eyes while Don's eyes were covered without even knowing it he lost contact with reality the instant the blindfold was removed there was a conflict between what he felt and what he saw saw that was so deep-seated that the Mind simply could not resolve it and the subject is incapacitated for some time a careful look at the balance mechanism within the ear will show us why the organ is made up of three interconnected canals and it's filled with a fluid this is a model of just one Canal we use the red balls so that you can tell when the fluid is moving this represents a sensing hair and there are thousands of these even a slight motion disturbs the sensors as we start a turn the fluid momentarily lags due to its inertia the sensors Bend and turning cues are transmitted to the brain but this is where the pilot can get into real trouble notice that the fluid is catching up with the canal and when the speed of the fluid and the speed of the canal are the same the sensing hair is are rected and we think we're stopped now stop the canal and the fluid rushes on bending the sensors in the opposite direction and we think we're turning the other way even though we're not turning at all obviously our sense of balance must involve something more than just the inner ear and it does our balance is made up of three senses the inner ear vision and the proprioceptive sense or the sense of movement and position coming from within the body the inner ear then is just one part of an integrated system and as we have seen it can't function properly by itself to be able to fly a pilot must have a visual reference that will override the false Sensations coming from his other senses the instrument pilot has this visual override he can see because he has the instruments which for him provide an even more precise reference than another pilot would have flying in clear weather now it is true that all Pilots have and at times use instruments in flight but some have the mistaken idea that this makes them instrument Pilots the thing they don't realize is that when flying in clear air even though they're concentrating on the instruments their visual override is coming from outside the airplane remember the pilot involved in that first crash he had been practicing instrument flight for some time listen to the words of the second pilot I had uh maybe 18 hours but I have not got a read on IFR as of yet before a pilot can fly solely by reference to instruments he has to develop a unique skill that will allow the instruments to become a substitute for the normal visual reference and he has to have a faith in those instruments that becomes a way of life if he feels like he's turning and the instruments tell him he's flying straight he believes the instruments and then his Vision overrides the false Sensations so that he isn't even conscious of them this allows him to fly with complete safety in conditions that would kill the non-instrument pilot all Airline and Military Pilots are instrument pilots and they're flying all over the world in all kinds of weather with the highest degree of safety if we could expect any man to be an exception to the rules regarding instrument flight it would be one of the astronauts mentally and physically they are the finest let's see what Astronaut John Glenn has to say about instrument flight but we run into the same disorientation problems in space flight from the operations of the inner ear that uh any Private Pilot runs into in normal everyday flying what we found is that we we have to rely on our instruments have complete faith in them just as a A Private Pilot must come up to the time when he makes his decision when he's going into bad weather whether he relies on his own senses or whether he uh switches over and relies on the instruments uh we've learned of course uh through many years of experience we must have faith in our our instruments Colonel it's interesting to hear you mention Faith there are some today who feel that faith is oldfashioned and that somehow scientific knowledge has made Faith unnecessary is this your experience no I quite the opposite I think I think uh faith is even more necessary today than it's ever been we have faith in the instruments we have faith in the the forces that are working the compass that we can't see or feel we have faith in it and uh we've both staked Our Lives Many Times on it over the past years we have used 96 Tango to photograph subjects which without a plane would be most difficult such as these ancient ruins of tial deep in the jungles of Guatemala or this work in the Arctic or here in Africa oh we've flown in bad weather in nearly every country of the world going left turn right 5° so well above the Glide path passing through the southeast Gap at the present time well clear out High Ground Hong Kong Tower 696 Tango clearance ATC clears 696 Tango to Tai B via green8 red tree our experience has been that instrument flying is reliable trustworthy and safe of course there are a few places in the world where Air Traffic Control just isn't available we're now flying into one of them the heart of the vast Libyan Desert we're hundreds of miles from civilization searching for a ghost bomber a plane that has come out of the past to tell an unforgettable story of the need for faith in the instruments there she is now the mystery ship the lady be good discovery of the lady beg good triggered one of the most baffing investigations in military history Air Force records revealed that the plane and her crew had disappeared on their first combat Mission finding her here more than a thousand miles from her Target and exactly the opposite direction from her base seemed impossible yet there could be no question this was the lady beg good major robertis the story of the lady beg good certainly is one of the real sagas of World War II I understand that you made the first flight out here that's right I did Doctor and uh what did you find at that time what was the condition of the plane well I would say that the condition of the lady beg good at that time was considerably different than you see it today uh all the glass was in place the gun all in place and fully loaded and of course all the propellers were on it was known that the lady had reached the target area near Naples and had headed for her base at Benghazi low on fuel for 17 years it was assumed that the plane ran out of fuel Somewhere over the Mediterranean finding a plane that had been low on fuel 442 mil past her base was puzzling indeed but the fate of the crew became an even greater mystery from the condition of the wreckage it was determined that the crew had bailed out just before the crash but then they seem to have vanished Without a Trace finally after more than a year the bailout point was discovered this parachute harness was discarded by a member of the crew the exposed edges were cut by sharp blowing sand the rest looks practically new this empty flare shell was found on the desert Lieutenant War Ava's body was discovered nearby perhaps he was the fortunate one his shoot failed to open but what about the other men it was felt they could not have gotten far daytime temperatures were at least 135 to 140° The Experts said they couldn't have walked more than 50 mil purely by accident five bodies were finally discovered here an incredible 78 miles from the bailout Point let me read from a diary found beside one of the bodies Thursday the 8th hit sand dos very miserable continuous blowing of sand everyone now very weak thought Sam and Moore were all done Lamont's eyes are gone everyone else's eyes are bad and on Friday the nth Shelly rip Mo separate and try to go for help rest of us all very weak It seems impossible that three men could have struggled on but they did Sergeant riplinger referred to as Rip in the diary fought on another 26 miles Sergeant Shelly made it to this point he had walked 114 miles the body of Sergeant Moore has not yet been discovered how far he got we may never know what Quirk of fate was it that could have lured these men so far past their base and to their death in the desert that night as they returned from Naples it seemed the crew had barely settled down for the long trip home when the instruments began acting strangely the ADF needle swung around indicating they had passed their base why they weren't due home for hours the crew was faced with a most difficult decision they wanted to trust their instruments but logic told them they must be wrong they must be damaged or maybe the enemy was sending out a decoy they couldn't be home yet so they continued on the moment they lost faith in their instruments their only hope was to spot the Beacon Light at Benghazi so the pilot descended beneath the clouds and everyone started looking for a light they would never see it was already many miles behind them you see there was another logical explanation for what happened that night one that agreed perfectly with the instruments at their particular altitude they could have encountered an unusually high Tailwind which sent them whizzing past their Base hours ahead of schedule we now know this is what happened the instruments were right they were carefully tested after the plane was discovered in the desert they were in perfect working order on the instrument panel of every plane and within every human heart and mind these words should be deeply etched there is a way that seeth right unto a man but the end thereof are the ways of death remember those signals from the inner ear some of them are right some are wrong going down but without an accurate external standard of reference we can be completely wrong and not even know it the same thing can apply to reason and logic when faced with several equally logical Alternatives we can't just trust the way we feel at such times man must have an accurate standard of reference to guide him instrument flying is based solidly on the principle that the pilot must have an accurate standard of reference outside himself and he must have unwavering faith in that standard an astronaut Tak taking off on a space trip depends upon the laws used to compute his trajectory he knows that they're not going to change before he can get back to Earth this unshakable faith that the universe is governed by unchanging laws is the Cornerstone of modern science now there is just one area where man still clings to the outmoded idea that there are no absolute laws to guide him this is the moral and spiritual an area where man is making little if any progress the one area where he refuses to accept a standard of reference outside himself now the Cornerstone for the vast Global Network of air traffic control is the fate of the pilot without this everything becomes useless and the pilot is doomed remember that H for help St at that moment the plane was being tracked on radar all the instruments and electronic systems were working the men on the ground were doing everything they could to help but there was one all important thing they could not do for the pilot they couldn't believe for him God has provided a complete system he has given us a handbook which describes its unchanging standards and here too faith is the Cornerstone of the the system without it everything becomes useless now Faith is something you as an individual must Supply oh it may be encouraged by others but in the last analysis it's your personal responsibility and once again faith is the difference between life and death for there is a way that seeth right unto a man but the end thereof are the ways of death and yet there's a wonderful alternative it stems from the love of God for man for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life turn left3 head the instrument pilot recognizing his physical limitations accepts by faith the guidance that is provided for for him in view of man's spiritual needs and limitations is it not even more necessary for us to accept God's guidance commit thy way unto the Lord trust also in him and he shall bring it to pass I [Music]