The Death Spiral 🛩️

In aviation, a Death Spiral or Graveyard Spiral is a type of dangerous spiral dive entered accidentally by a pilot who is not trained or not proficient in flying in instrument meteorological conditions (IMC).

Graveyard spirals are most common at night or in poor weather conditions where no horizon exists to provide visual correction for misleading inner-ear cues. Graveyard spirals are the result of several sensory illusions in aviation which may occur in actual or simulated IMC, when the pilot experiences spatial disorientation and loses awareness of the aircraft's attitude. The pilot loses the ability to judge the orientation of their aircraft due to the brain's misperception of spatial cues.

The graveyard spiral consists of both physiological and physical components. Mechanical failure is often a result, but generally not a causal factor, as it is the pilot's sense of equilibrium that leads to the spiral dive. Flying by "the seat of the pants", and failing to recognize and/or respond to instrument readings, is the most common source of controlled flight into terrain, where an airplane controlled by a pilot hits the ground.

[MTD]

Man, my CFI was flying some crazy stuff when I did recovery from unusual attitudes. After seeing how gentle this was I think he may have been trying to kill us.

[Federico]

It's the slow coordinated turn that kills you. Your vestibular system gets adapted to the angular shift and you feel like being straight and level while you're not. Unusual attitude recovery is one thing, what he's showing here is illusions which may lead to a graveyard spiral in IIMC. So to all the people complaining about how shallow those turns were... you're not getting the point of this.

[roytaylor]

That would have to be the softest of unusual attitudes I have ever seen, I copped side slipping 90 degrees to the left then 90 degrees to the right once felt like I was coming over the top of a loop, power off stick right back, plane went berserk so put the stick neutral when I reckoned the aircraft was heading down hill just used normal spin recovery, I was in an aerobatic plane so had to demonstrate at least 10 spin revolution's as well, unusual attitudes are the best thing you can do to make Shure you become an old pilot I am now 78 😁😁😁

[manifestgtr]

My CFI’s favorite move for unusual attitudes was to put your head down, close your eyes then perform a steep turn. There were a few occasions I looked up and we were well beyond 60 degrees of bank and falling out of the sky but because I had that 1.5-2g feeling, the sensation was recognizable and “ordinary” which is definitely the point of the exercise.

[SuperDak]

Remember : the elevator turns the airplane, that’s why we are told to get the wings level first, then pull.

[Kadams]

Gentle unusual attitudes. I have had some instructors feel like they're trying to do a barrel roll in a c172.

[keithbeaty]

Would have been nice to see some standard UPRT introduced such as upset recognition, unloading the elevator then continuing the recovery.

[IlIlIlIlIlIlIlIl-vh]

Are you effing me? CFI banked maybe 10 degrees while the student was heads down. My CFI did steep turns

[Michael.Sparks]

What’s your camera/audio setup for this?

[RaysDad]

I wouldn't call any of these attitudes a death spiral, though they could lead to a death spiral (accelerating downward, inside wing partially or fully stalled, probably near or above "never exceed" speed). Level the wings, idle the throttle, reverse-side rudder, slowly pull back stick. This is different from spin recovery mainly because you must level the wings.

[mattiasdevlin]

Throw the plane around go out straight and level and hand it back to the student and watch the show...^^

[crand]

JFK Jr's plane had gas tanks in each wing and one was heavier than the other so to maintain control he had to compensate for that condition. Am I right?

[rinzler]

I came to see the "spiral of death".

[sachithfernando]

That wasn't a spiral stall at all😂😂😂😂

[adamzucker]

I’m curious what type or brand of goggles are you wearing? They look so much easier to use then those horrible frosted shop type goggles.

[anitaw]

oh jeez, how did that feel, when you took over controls again? ... 😅 I know those situations have to be trained ...

[johnthegreek]

Unusual attitudes? That’s a walk in the park. My CFI tried to break the plane in half!

[MrBayspring]

That's what happened to jfk Jr, he went into a death spiral

[llongdong]

E magine the guy aimin' the thang at a buildin' when the dude opens his eyes. I wood knot put it past the ole geezer someday. That ole geezer ain't ta be trusted.