— Do You See What I See?
Night time changes everything.
Reading patient vitals scribbled on medical tape, finding your black nomex gloves and walking across a field are easy during the day.
But at night, easy tasks can quickly become challenging.
The simple things we take for granted in daylight …..are often not so simple in the dark.
And that’s just the beginning of the challenges at night.
Night Time Separates Pros from Average Joes
Night time deserves special attention and consideration.
One of the cornerstones of Air Medical Resource Management (AMRM) or Crew Resource Management (CRM), if you’re old school like me, is effective communications. But before effective communication can happen, the sender needs to interpret what he or she sees, correctly.
Here is the challenge night operations accenuate:
Two crew members can be looking at the same thing, but not seeing the same thing. From a safety perspective, that’s obviously a big deal.
There’s no chance for effective communication until everyone sees the same picture. Read The ABC’s of Crew Communications for more information about how to send and receive messages with accuracy.
This article introduces the 11 Night Visual Illusions. The purpose is to learn the names of each of the 11 illusions. The language and semantics are important in this case.
There’s no sorting out who is seeing what, until you can communicate what you’re seeing. After the initial communication takes place, understanding the 11 night visual illusions and how they may be “tricking” your perspective is also important.
Here is an easy mnemonic* to remember the 11 Night Visual Illusions is:
Fire! Fire! Fire! C R A S H! Search And Rescue!
Then the first letter of each word prompts each of the 11 Night Visual Illusions:
- F – False Horizons
- F – Flicker Vertigo
- F – Fascination
- ————————-
- C – Confusion with Ground Lights
- R – Relative Motion
- A – Autokinesis
- S – Structural Illusion
- H – Height Perception Illusion
- ————————-
- S – Size / Distance Illusion
- A – Altered Planes of Reference
- R – Reversible Perspective Illusion
That’s it! A simple and easy way to remember the 11 Night Visual Illusions. *I love the mnemonic and think it’s the absolute best way to remember the night illusions. But, I didn’t create it. I saw it the first time over 20 years ago in the United States Army, and then again in the United States Coast Guard.
I do not know who created it.
There are a couple variations of the mnemonic, one is x-rated. Instead of Fire! Fire! Fire! it starts with a different F word …you get the idea.
The next step is of course to learn how to recognize and react to each illusion. If you’re interested in learning the details, come back to FlightSafetyNet blog and sign up for the newsletter below.
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Here is the audio version of The 11 Night Visual Illusions:
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