Plain English Meaning

A training exercise that shows how, without looking outside or at the instruments, your inner ear can fool you into thinking the airplane is leaning to one side when it's actually flying straight and level.

Full Definition

A spatial disorientation demonstration in which the pilot, with eyes closed, perceives the aircraft as banking left or right when in fact it is in straight, level, unaccelerated flight. The illusion is produced by an unbalanced stimulation of the inner ear's vestibular system (the otolith organs), often resulting from a previous slip, skid, or uncoordinated maneuver, and is corrected by to the .