A quick realism suggestion.

[Fancy]

One of the only (necessary, unless you think the taste of blood in your mouth is necessary for gritty combat realism) senses missing from this game is the sense of inertia.  When inverted, the body can sense up through those ineer-ear doodads.  Perhaps we could simulate this with something simple like an arrow that always points up.

The only reason I bring this up is that a squaddie relayed a story where he was hugging terrain so intently to avoid someone on his 6 that he didn't really know where up was.  But a real pilot would have some SENSE of what's up.  This is also true in a nose-up situation where all you see is sky.  I know your body takes a secnd to find level and it isn't always that easy when doing fast maneuvers, but pilots still rely on their inertial/orientation sensors when they can.  So maybe something like an arrow that wobble during violent movement but otherwise points generally up.

[deSelys]

I'm not sure the body can feel where is up and where is down when strapped into a fast moving object generating Gs.

There are lot of RL tales of pilots entering clouds in a level position and exiting inverted or worse they had only reacted to what their body was telling them without looking at the instruments.

Rear Adm Gillcrist tells in his book 'Feet Wet' that he was often subject to vertigo during night carrier landing (when it was pitch black). His body was screaming that he was banking and diving fast, and he had to fight the sensation intensely and focus only on his instruments scan.

[Fancy]

Here's a quote from a website along with the diagram.  The body has AMAZING abilities to align itself in realtion to gravity and to detect inertial change.  However, the brain uses input from these organs PLUS the eyes PLUS muscular movements.  The fact that you are not seeing or causing any motion, but are in fact moving is why people often get sick when reading in cars (or just plain riding in them).  I guess my request might be a bit compicated as the inner ear organs are not really suited to high speed and high G flight (which is why fighter pilots can easily get disoriented), so maybe it's best to disregard.  You see, the brain has problems dealing with conflicting data from the three sources due to the fact that it is designed to only handle speeds and Gs that a person can physically put him/herself through.  However, given some stability time, inertial sensors will read truly.  But an interesting topic nonetheless.  (It sounds like that fighter pilot was having problems with stereo-vision, not inertial sense.  It is difficult for the brain to track the distance of fast moving, oncomming objects, especially given the fact that the carrier is essentially a field of dots.)

The diagram below shows the structures of the inner ear. The inner ear balance organs consist of three semicircular canals (the horizontal, posterior, and superior canals) that are located at roughly right angles to one another. These balance canals give the brain information related to the angular motion of the head. They function somewhat like a gyroscope in an airplane. The otolith organs (utriculus and sacculus) are the other balance organs in the inner ear. They give the brain information related to linear movements of the head and to the orientation of the head relative to gravity.

[hitech]

Fancy if you were flying with me in a real airplane and you closed your Eyes.  I Could roll the plane and you would never know it happened.

The resone is because when you are flying straight and level the plane is producing 1 g of force to conteract it's weight i.e the force of gravity. In a normal 1g roll no back pressure is supplied to the stick. Your body is still having a 1g load on it all the way threw the roll. Hence you feel no change in force i.e. acceleration.

And your body still thinks its right side up.

In fact rule number 1 when flying IFR or when you can't see the horizon like dark nights with no lights around or on very hazy days is do NOT trust your senses but consitrate on the gauges.

[Miska]

Bob Mason in Chickenhawk has a very impressive passage about how an experienced helicopted pilot who has never learned to fly by instruments can completely lose awareness of up and down in a cloud.  Great reading.  I recommend it.

[Fancy]

Good point Hitech, my research shows that inertial sense is relative.  Anyway, I've never flown anything so I was, for the most part speculating.  But it still is a fascinating topic, how the brain combines three or more different inputs to give us a "sense".

[Ferris]

If you trust your inner ear and senses to tell you what up is while flying you will eventually die.......It is called Spacial Disorentation. I have personally been in situations when my brian has had me so convinced that I was in a turn that I still had to convince my self after I checked instruments......It is a very scarry feeling and has killed many a pilot. spatial D usually happens in instrument flight situations and can be caused by sloping clouds or any number of other factors (flying low).

[loser]

ever here of those stories where skiers are caught in avalanches and die because they actually were digging down?

use your artificial horizon gauge.

but Hitech, on a somewhat but not really related note.  Can we have a position indicator in the ball turret on the B17?  When down in the belly becoming disoriented is a problem sometimes.  I saw a post almost a year ago where someone actually toured a B17 and the real plane had this instrument in the ball turret.