Spatial disorientation is the misperception of your position and movement relative to the ground. Put simply, whenever the instruments tell you one thing and your body tells you something different, you suffer from spatial disorientation.
For example, you may see a turn on your instruments, but feel straight and level, or vice versa. These senses can cause you to use the controls to “correct” a flight attitude that does not exist, and, subsequently, lead to loss of control. Any conditions that deprive a pilot of natural and visual references allowing him to maintain orientation can quickly lead to spatial disorientation.
We tend to think that lack of visual reference means clouds, but there are several other situations that can create disorientation. Being in clouds can be very problematic, but haze, darkness, or unclear terrain (such as flying over water) or a snowy surface on a cloudy day can create conditions that lead to disorientation.
Obviously, the best is to plan your outings well to avoid these situations. But in the event that this happens to you, only your instruments will allow you to get by. You have all received instrument flight training. But it might be a while. These few hours are there to teach you the basics, and to give you enough to be able to maintain control of the aircraft in an emergency situation. And yes, a flight in IFR weather conditions for a pilot with only VFR skills constitutes an emergency. And don't be fooled that with these few hours of training you can maintain control for long. It is often said that you will have 176 seconds to live if this happens to you. It is therefore strongly recommended, because it does not happen to others,
