Roy Smith wrote in news:roy-0F407F.23230406012005
@reader1.panix.com:

In article ,
Andrew Sarangan wrote:

wrote in news:hknmt05hfh1ie353a9nm8or71cnfclhn64
@
4ax.com:

On Tue, 04 Jan 2005 18:09:11 -0500, Matt Whiting
wrote:

Roy Smith wrote:

In article ,
wrote:

On Tue, 04 Jan 2005 09:16:52 -0500, Roy Smith
wrote:


For example, at night, the runway might be lit up like
a christmas tree, but the hills might be invisible.


If you can see the runway, there ain't no hill between you and
it.


But there can still be a hill below for you to descend into.
Your
eyeballs can still have clear line of sight to the runway lights
while
your landing gear is dragging through the treetops.

Or the runway could be in a valley with a high tension line across
it...


Matt


Like I said.

If you can see the runway, there ain't no hill between you and it.


Yea, but a power line is just as bad as a hill.

Not really. With a power line, you at least stand a chance of just
catching the wire with the landing gear and ending up hanging upside
down from the gear until the firemen come and rescue you with a cherry
picker. It's hard to do that with a hill.


I wonder how often that really happens. I know of only one case when a
Seattle pilot hung on a wire. I would imagine that the chance of hitting
a wire and hanging upside down is just as remote as surviving a midair
collision. I could be wrong though.