Mark,

 

I started this thread and made the observations you are countering.  I totally agree with almost all of your observations.  It’s a little unfortunate the guy at Tru Trak did not mention the warning indicator that alerts the pilot to slow airspeed.  Had I known that I probably would have bought the thing. 

 

I think you MAY be underestimating the power of past training.  With a backup instrument like this that most of us won’t spend a lot of time getting to know, I think it is possible even for a guy with pretty fair aircraft handling skills and scanning techniques to be further misled by misleading data from an instrument that looks identical to but in fact behaves differently  from what he has used regularly during all of his past years of flying.  The airspeed warning feature goes a long way towards mitigating this potential problem and you are most likely correct that a good scan would assist the pilot in ferreting out what data is valid and what isn’t.

 

In the case of the IVP things can happen very rapidly such that at altitude and speed a deteriorating series of events can easily escalate into an overwhelming dilemma.  I suspect that’s why there are so many IVP accidents.  Any flaw in backup instrumentation needs to be examined carefully before blindly accepting its ability to help you out of a tight spot.  Since my life could well depend partly on this little gadget and my ability to interpret it in the most stressful of conditions, I tend to be very skeptical of the unknown aspects until they’ve been demonstrated to be effective.  Perhaps my 50 years of flying experience will prove effective should I need to use the ADI.  I am not comfortable with merely an intellectual discussion of the pros and cons but rather would need to fly the instrument in order to see what might happen in varying conditions.

 

Thanks to all for your enlightening discussion.

 

Best regards,

John Barrett

 

 

I think you are guys all making a mountain out of a molehill...

"Misinterpretation" is possible with ANY kind of instrument, even the tried and true gyroscopic attitude indicator That's why we are all taught NOT to rely on any one instrument in IMC to understand what the aircraft is doing.



The way I learned instruments the attitude indicator was NEVER the primary control instrument for pitch -- it was airspeed.

I submit knowing the actual attitude (pitch, yaw, roll) of the aircraft isn't as important as understanding the SITUATION (attitude, airspeed, VSI, weather, etc.).


Additionally, TruTrak has already considered the above situation and accounted for it. Should the pilot allow the aircraft to slow enough such that pitch indications might not match the actual attitude of the aircraft, the TruTrak ADI will has a programmable warning indicator that tells the pilot to check the airspeed.

For myself, I find the TruTrak ADI a fine alternative to more expensive mechanical gyroscopic instruments.

Mark Sletten