Hi Bob and Co,

Q) If an Artificial horizon becomes toppled in flight

A) It will remain serviceable but will take time to re-erect itself

Can you please explain how this happens? In the book it only states that the AI can be toppled in extreme situations but doesn't explain how the problem is rectified.

Thanks

It all depends on the equipment. The training textbooks are constrained by reality and not being able to run to a thousand pages to cover ins and outs. However, there is plenty of stuff on this topic available on the net so I would suggest a cup or two of coffee and some serious net searching.

Main takeaway, though, is that, should you get into the situation in serious IMC and turbulence, you are instantly back on limited panel with an interesting short term startle problem. If you don't have a good standby AH (which you revert to), then those who don't routinely practice their limited panel skills might find themselves in a serious departure. On the other hand, if your skills are maintained up to speed, loss of the AH is just a minor nuisance and probably will require that you put down the paper and do some hand flying.

I was brought up on ancient equipment and, when it toppled, it was gone until it was caged and reset once you got everything under control. One of the very useful short term training exercises is to do a few hours aerobatics under the hood after you finish your PPL, as I did. After a bit, you get very good, very quickly, at flying basic I/F.

All a case of horses for courses.