Simviation Forums

Excellent documentary on the TV at the moment, describing a passenger who recently successfully landed a Cessna 172 Skyhawk with the assistance of ATC, after the Pilot-in-command had died during a short flight in the late afternoon.

http://news.sky.com/story/1151978/passe ... -falls-ill

And to make matters worse, darkness was rapidly approaching!

I suspect that many of us would be quite confident? of doing the same, in a small Cessna Trainer, being very familiar with the local area in daylight, and in good meteorological conditions, and using our Flight Sim experience....

...but to navigate the aircraft, and safely land, during the hours of complete DARKNESS?.... ...!

During my daily 15 years of Sim flying my little GA Cessna Trainers, etc, I have never been comfortable Sim flying in poor visibility, and NEVER in darkness...(sunset to sunrise)... even with my good knowledge of Radio Navigation!

Just imagine trying to navigate, and safely land, in a local area, in total darkness, without reference to any familiar landmarks down below!

How do you think you would cope, in real life, being in John's position, in the same conditions?... ....!

Bum clenching?

Paul...VFR Sim Pilot... ...!

P.S....Two weeks after the incident, John took his first flying lesson!... ...!

Hat's off to John, I think I could muck my way through it, one thing for sure I would end up on the ground one way or another!

Maybe, maybe not.

In FSX flying in poor viz or dusk/dawn conditions is too much like hard work, but it could save your life practising visual landings in IFR. I remember flying hours of circuits just before night flying started and the r/w lights came on just to recognize the landmarks in the circuit and approach. You'd be surprised how easy it is to get disoriented.

logjam wrote:In FSX flying in poor viz or dusk/dawn conditions is too much like hard work, but it could save your life practising visual landings in IFR. I remember flying hours of circuits just before night flying started and the r/w lights came on just to recognize the landmarks in the circuit and approach. You'd be surprised how easy it is to get disoriented.

Ah yes, "Pink Time", collected a few hours there too. Enjoyed it immensely! Actually it's my favorite time to fly because all the CAVU crowd has gone to roost and only the serious flyers are out and about. I really enjoy night flying too. Only problem I ever had was coming home from a cross country one time. It was around 2230 (30 minutes after the tower closed) and my instructor and I were coming back to KMIC from KBRD, Minnesota. The approach and landing were nice and smooth and I stopped our little C152 just short of the taxiway back to our ramp. Luckily I stopped where I did because standing in the middle of the runway just on the other side of the taxiway turn off was an adult male deer. If I had landed long or not decided to catch the closest taxiway we would have plowed right into Mr. Bambi. That prompted the lecture my instructor called the "RIBC Talk." Runway Incursion By Critters.

Being a city boy from the East coast I'm still amazed at the number of deer that live in the Minneapolis / St. Paul metropolitan area.

Hawkeye