 Gold's orange windows, and if I don't watch it, I'll be in trouble again, and that I can live without. Still, I'm looking volunteered. Bud Doyle, an advertising salesman from Buffalo, flying high over Central New York State, is about to take part in one of the more unusual cross-country hops in general aviation. His flight? One in a series of flights sponsored by the Aircraft Development Service of the Federal Aviation Administration, and conducted by the Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory. Its purpose? To test the merits of stability augmentation concepts in light aircraft. A concept that might save lives when pilots become disoriented in IFR weather. Watch. Bud Doyle and his wife like to spend their holidays miles from home at any of a number of secluded resorts. To make the most of their free time, Bud took up flying, and got his private license and this plane. His wife Lucy couldn't wait to get a weekend in the sun, or take her turn on the fairway in some faraway place. Day Lucy would coax Bud to fly her to one of her favorite spots in the state. But then one Sunday, something happened. We finally got started for home a bit later than out of light. Allowing for winds, we'd been around sunset. However, there was a chance we'd run into some weather en route. The station's west of Buffalo had enough ceiling, but only three to five miles visibility in haze, and it was moving our way. So it was a choice of getting in before the weather, or telling Lucy she'd have to miss the annual fashion show tomorrow morning. So we hightailed it for home. Cass showed up at about 7,000 on schedule. There were reports of scattered clouds at low altitude over the last part of our route. And as you might have expected, we lost a little time dodging some cumulus. It was my favorite way to fly. Get back out of this stuff. Losing his outside visual reference, Bud became disoriented. A phenomenon that plagues non-instrument rated pilots upon encountering IFR or marginal VFR flight conditions, and accounts for a large percentage of general aviation's fatal accidents each year. With his visual reference gone, Bud was unable to cope with the situation. He never even tried to interpret his instruments. Bud never realized what was happening. He was gradually falling off into a spiral. I couldn't tell which way it was up. When we finally broke out of this stuff, Lady Luck was with us. We had enough altitude to recover from that steep dive 1,000 feet above the ground. I was in a cold sweat, and didn't dare look at Lucy. The do-do was find a place to land. Later, Bud and Lucy were on the ground at a small field east of Buffalo. While they waited for a friend to pick them up, Lucy found her voice. And told Bud off. She swore she'd never fly with me again. And it was no doubt in my mind, she meant it. So Bud didn't try to change Lucy's mind. He'd wait until he knew what actually happened. It was Floyd Evans, Bud's former flight instructor, who reconstructed the flight conditions which existed that day. Using the actual weather reports issued at the time, Floyd pieced things together. Quickly, it was still day and VFR just as I'd thought. But the overcast made it appear dark early, so I couldn't see the clouds right in front of me till I bored a hole into them. Floyd explained it was a classic example of a graveyard spiral. But I guess I was dense. I just couldn't understand why I got so confused and disoriented, or why the plane was in such a steep diving turn by the time we broke out of the clouds. I wonder what Lucy thinks. I know I'm a careful pilot. So Floyd took Bud across the field to meet Chris Oliver, an engineering test pilot for the Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory. Chris offered to talk to Bud at the lab after he changed. Here Bud learned some of the causes of pilot disorientation, the inexperience of the pilot, the tension that builds when pilots are overly anxious to get home, marginal or bad weather, and the spiral instability of general aviation aircraft. Chris pointed out that when flying VFR, pilots subconsciously correct for the inherent instability of their aircraft by constantly making small aileron corrections to maintain a wings level attitude, thereby never allowing the spiral to develop. But when a non-instrument rated pilot loses his outside visual reference in IFR or marginal VFR weather, and is not trained to interpret his cockpit instruments in all probability, the airplane will eventually go into a spiral. The characteristic of the airplane to develop a spiral dive is often aggravated by changes in lateral balance during flight, such as asymmetric use of fuel from wing tanks. By means of visual aids, Bud learned that for an airplane to be spirally stable, it would need a very long body, and wings with an extremely high dihedral. But the tail would have to be enormous to prevent the fishtailing caused by the high dihedral. These characteristics would make an airplane too difficult to maneuver, like flying on iron rails, so the manufacturers build a fairly stable machine, one that you can control. But the spiral stability is poor, and the pilot has to keep flying it full time. With a little help, like a gust or a mistrim, it can gradually go into a spiral, and that can happen to any non-instrument pilot who gets into marginal weather. Chris then went on to explain a possible solution to this spiral instability problem, a stability augmentation system commonly called SAS. Chris explained the SAS to Bud. He pointed out that SAS is less complicated than an autopilot, and that it contains a gyroscope that detects any roll or yaw rate. Through the pitch axis, pressures from the pitostatic system sense changes in air speed and altitude. The system is connected by servos to the cable or rod running to each control surface. When on full time, if the plane deviates from wings level, zero turn rate gets off trim speed or gets too high a rate of descent. The system detects it and responds by causing a corrective deflection of the appropriate control surface until the airplane is back to straight and level. Referring to Bud's trouble again, Chris said that one of the first things taught in instrument flying is that a pilot can't fly VFR in IFR weather. Once in the clouds, if he doesn't quit looking out the windshield and concentrate on the gyro horizon, spiral instability will probably lead him into a gradual attitude upset followed by spatial disorientation, vertigo, and even loss of control. Justice Bud experienced that day flying home with Lucy. Chris gave me some literature on a project the FAA and his lab were starting in this problem area. A problem area the government has been concerned about since the late 40s. Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory was looking for volunteers, both instrument rated pilots and non-instrument rated pilots like myself, to help them. So I volunteered and was one of 31 pilots selected. The airplane you will fly is equipped with a special stability augmentation system known as the SAS. It can be turned on or off as desired by Chris Oliver, our pilot who will fly with you. Each of you will be asked to fly a short cross-country hop, parts of it in VFR conditions and parts in simulated IFR conditions. The IFR conditions will be simulated by having you wear a special pair of blue goggles. The windshield and the window of the aircraft will be covered on the inside with a special orange plastic. When you wear the blue goggles and try to see outside through this orange plastic, you will see nothing. Your control of the airplane will depend on your interpretation of the cockpit instruments, which you'll still be able to see through the blue goggles. Chris Oliver will tell you when the SAS is on or off. Whenever the SAS is on, bear in mind that you are not relieved of control of the airplane. You do have the capability of overpowering the SAS control inputs. However, you must realize that if the SAS is to help you, you must allow it to exert its recovering control inputs. Each of you will be provided with a log for your reference and you're expected to keep your flight log up to date. And so that's how I happened to be up here sweating it out on instruments, blue goggles and all. Like it was that awful day with Lucy. I was beginning to wonder how much of this I could take. Then Chris switched on the SAS and started me on another pattern. Things were different, poles were stiffer. Then it was time to go back on simulated IFR. Chris told me to fly for Jamestown by a Victor 270. Wouldn't you know it? I couldn't remember the course. Some time to be fooling with charts. Suddenly it dawned on me that instead of it being tougher to fly and to navigate without the real horizon, it was easier. Altitude control was a bit sloppy, but that was usual for me. And funny as it may seem, although I was having trouble interpreting the instruments, I was doing fine, even though I was flying IFR. And believe it or not, I was staying right on course. SAS was giving me a helping hand. In all, 26 non-instrument rated private and commercial pilots and five instrument rated pilots flew the test aircraft in this program. A program designed to evaluate the usefulness of the SAS concept rather than specific hardware. A program designed to find out how much help systems of this type might be to pilots flying in VFR and IFR conditions as a full-time or as an emergency recovery system. Some time after the tests ended, that and the other participants were given the findings. As for the results, flying and simulated IFR conditions, SAS off in the off position, 16 of the 26 pilots were able to maintain control of the aircraft and completed the required 180-degree turn. Eight of the pilots, while maintaining control of the aircraft, were unable to achieve the 180-degree heading change. One pilot lost control of the aircraft and one pilot more not listed here came dangerously close to losing control. With SAS on, the results were quite different. 23 of the pilots were able to maintain control of the aircraft and to make the required 180-degree turn. Only three to make that turn and not a single pilot lost control. The most significant finding of all was that while flying IFR straight and level, SAS off, nine pilots lost control of the aircraft. SAS on, none lost control. Only one came close, very close to dangerous flight conditions when he tried to overpower the SAS. Additional statistics contained in the full report should encourage manufacturers of light aircraft to promote stability augmentation systems as optional or standard equipment in all their new models. Factors are offering SAS now in their present models or will be in the near future. Regardless of experience or rating, SAS will be of great help to most pilots. Results showed SAS was most effective when on full time. Of course, general aviation pilots should never use SAS intentionally as a device for unauthorized instrument flight. It is not a substitute for instrument flying skill. However, in an attitude upset, SAS is an excellent recovery device if not overpowered by the pilot. SAS improved the performance of all 31 general aviation pilots. It improved significantly the ability of each of the 26 non-instrument rated pilots to maintain control of the aircraft during an unexpected encounter with IFR conditions. It even improved the performance of the five instrument rated pilots in ILS approaches. Installed in his airplane, stability augmentation improved Bud's performance as a pilot. It helped him get his instrument rating and even gave this story a happy ending.