Your mind an play tricks on you. I remember one occasion where I was flying under an overcast at night. (no stars visible) and I saw the landing light of a plane coming at me. I kept my eyes on it and the relative bearing did not change which in airplanes, as well as ships, indicates a collision course. It kept getting closer and closer, I was getting concerned. Then I took my eyes off the other plane and scanned my instrument panel and said "what the..?" Without realizing it, by concentrating on the other plane, I had been slowly turning my plane which is what was keeping the other plane on the same spot on the windshield, maintaining the same relative bearing. I quickly turned back on course and saw that the other plane would pass well clear. And I didn't have the excuse of being groggy. So on a dark night without references it can be difficult to
visualize what is going on with other planes' lights.
The nav lights on a plane cover the same sectors as ships' running lights, red and green from straight ahead to "two points abaft the beam" or as the FARs specify, 112.5°, and only a white light showing in the remaining sector to the rear. Same right of way rules, the plane on the right has the right away and the overtaking plane must stay clear.
gl
gl
--- On Wed, 4/18/12, Apache Runner <apacherunner@gmail.com> wrote:
From: Apache Runner <apacherunner@gmail.com>
Subject: [NavList] Re: Pilot avoids collision with Venus
To: NavList@fer3.com
Date: Wednesday, April 18, 2012, 1:06 AM
I've heard a number of stories of people who have mistaken a rising Venus for an oncoming boat or train. It gets higher
in the sky, gets brighter and is quite bright.
In this particular story, it said that a C 17 was nearby and that he thought this was the C 17. On the other hand, I'm not sure that this would be what you expect for the light pattern of an oncoming airplane - shouldn't you see the red and green nav lights visible for an oncoming plane - then spend a bit of time trying to figure out your two relative paths? It sounds more like "groggy" is the operative word - I can't count the times I've woken up from a nap and felt disoriented.
But, a pilot's opinion would be welcomed. On Wed, Apr 18, 2012 at 8:20 AM, Geoffrey Kolbe <geoffreykolbe@compuserve.com> wrote:
At 06:32 18/04/2012, Bill B wrote:
I do not know if cel nav is a requirement for a commercial pilots license these days, but I would think a fundamental knowledge of the position of heavenly bodies might come in handy for the pilot of any craft.
Hmm. There is a lot of hype about this, mainly centred on a "disoriented and groggy" pilot who has just woken up, making a call about what looked like the lights of an oncoming plane, and considered that there was no time to make further checks about what else it might be before taking avoiding action.
Let us change the scenario a bit. Let us suppose the plane had been on autopilot and the human pilot had been on a walk-about amongst the passengers (as used to happen once upon a time) and came back into the cockpit to see a bright light dead ahead. Now, we have a pilot who is awake and alert, being confronted with what he thinks is a plane on collision course within seconds of impact. What is he to do...?
I would be interested to hear what Gary would think about this one.
Geoffrey
-- Keeping up with the grind
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