Walter,
...(Simple technical stuff was for the young members of the family when I wrote this years ago)...
And a very good summary of the mysteries of A.I. (Airborne Interception), too. Today's pilots, cossetted with full runway and approach lighting, VASIs, ILS and GCA and (God save the mark !)
Autoland, flying over towns and countryside lit up like Blackpool Tower, can have little idea of the horror of flying, on a moonless night, off a single row of goosenecks on an unlit field into a pitch-black nothingness - and then getting down on that field again !
As you say, the Artificial Horizon was your lifeline and you hung onto it like grim death. Tee Emm printed a very good poem of which I recall only scraps:
......................trying might and main,
Drift has changed with loss of height, round we go again.
Gremlins rap the perspex, thoughts come thick and fast -
Stick to the Sperry Panel, or your thoughts will be your last !...
The AH was the master instrument on that Panel, always in the place of honour (top centre), and in our day it could be "locked" in the level position by a "caging" knob below. This was a godsend if you'd "toppled" the gyro (IIRC, by a pitch change of 40° or a roll of 50°- or was it the other way round ?). Either way it was then useless, unless and until you'd regained level flight by using your Limited Panel (Airspeed and the "Turn and Bank" or "Needle and Ball" [UK or US to taste]: "
Needle-ball-airspeed", our US Instructors hammered into us !) Then you could "cage" the AH gyro horizon line (reeling drunkenly all over the place) back level with this knob, unlock and "Halleluja !" you had an AH again (or not as the case might be !) This demonstrates why a pilot who loses control in extreme turbulence (in a thunderhead, say) is as good as dead (with all passengers) unless he is very lucky.
But there is a hidden, deadly danger in this Caging Knob. The practice was always to leave your cockpit with both gyro instruments (AH and the DI [Direction Indicator - a compass with no north-seeking ability....Irish, perhaps ?] "caged"). Indeed, failing to do so at my OTU attracted a fine. Of course, a pilot would never attempt to take off without first unlocking his gyros, would he ? We..ll, you'd think not. But it has been done on occasion.
Of course by day, it doesn't matter, you have the real horizon in full view. But on a dark night, with little or no horizon (at sea, say....)
In 1943 a B-24, carrying Marshal Sikorski (Premier of Free Poland) took off from Gibraltar and went straight into the drink. No survivors. I have always believed that the pilot was using his AH after leaving the runway - but it was caged ! But what do I know ?
By now all pilots in our Crewroom are "spitting feathers" (you don't teach Grandmother how to suck eggs), but for the unfortunates who place their lives in our hands, this explanation may be of some interest. As you say Walter: "
simple technical stuff for the young members of the family".
Cheers, Danny.