Vertigo sucks

I've experienced vertigo a few times, but usually only for a few seconds.

The other day on our last training flight I wound up with a nasty case that took a few minutes to overcome.

We were knocking along in and out of IMC on the way back to AEL when my instructor covered the attitude and heading indicators. Normally that's not a big deal.

Anyhow, we had been flying along partial panel for probably 10 minutes when a very inexperienced-sounding center controller asked us our position from the Mason City VOR.

Since we'd left Mason City about 40 minutes earlier to fly an approach at Forest City, IA, flown the NDB approach there, flown the missed and had been cleared direct to the Albert Lea VOR the MCW VOR was a distant memory.

We looked at each other and said in unison “What the F...?” Then keyed the mic and told center to standby.

Just what I needed: A bizarro request from center partial panel in IMC.

I dug out the approach plate for MCW, found the VOR frequency, tuned it in to the number two nav, figured out what radial we were on then picked up the DME.

By this time, center was talking to a few other airplanes in quick succession so we just hung out. Eventually the controller called back and repeated the request and by now we had an answer.

She turned us over the Rochester Approach who gave us vectors for the VOR-34 back into AEL. After a few minutes of vectoring I looked down to check my approach chart and brief the approach.

When I looked back up and realized I had no idea where wings level was.

I tried to level the wings on the turn coordinator but kept over-correcting in the light turbulence. That just made things worse. I managed to keep out altitude more or less nailed, so I knew my pitch attitude was ok but I was having a devil of a time setting the wings level and keeping them there.

Eventually my instructor reminded me to get back on our heading, to which I could only reply: “Dude, I have no idea where wings level is. As soon as I figure that out I'll worry about my heading.”

A few seconds later the vertigo passed and I at least knew where wings level was again. Of course, by then I had no idea which way we were headed and the compass was bouncing and swinging around.

About this time Rochester Approach called and politely asked just where the hell we were going, to which I didn't have a particularly good answer. They kindly suggested a right turn to intercept the final approach course and a minute later the needle came alive and we flew the approach and found the runway, right where it was supposed to be.

It was a good learning experience but one I'm not eager to repeat.

First off, I should have just told the center controller our position relative to the Albert Lea VOR to see if that would work. Something along the lines of “Beats me, but we're 22 DME on the 210 radial off of Albert Lea. If you want me to figure it from Mason City I'll need to call you back in a couple of minutes” probably would have gotten the message across.

Second, doing partial panel training in actual conditions isn't such a hot idea. It's not the potential loss of control that's the issue (just uncover the attitude and heading indicators if things stop making sense) but the chance for violating your clearance is just too high.

Third, the more I think about it the more I think it's a good idea to file an ASRS report. We obviously violated our clearance when RST approach had to re-vector us on to the final approach course.

And fourth, vertigo sucks. But you already knew that.