Night VFR following highways

In rec.aviation.piloting wrote:
On Feb 1, 1:35?pm, wrote:
In rec.aviation.piloting Mxsmanic wrote:

Is it a bad idea to fly VFR at night and navigate by following highways? ?At
night outside large cities, there doesn't seem to be much else that's visible.
It seems to me that if you can clearly see the highway, it can guide you and
you can get a good idea of where you are with respect to terrain, so it should
work. ?Are there hidden dangers in this? ?Do night VFR pilots ever/often
navigate by following highways? ?What other forms of visual navigation are
usable at night?

About the only reason to follow highways (other than it just happens to
go where you want to go) at night is you are guaranteed that there is
nothing directly above the highway (such as a mountain peak), which is
handy for going through things like passes on dark nights and areas
dotted with high peaks.

However, the only way one would know visually that they are really
over most highways at night is from the real lights of real traffic.

Since there is no real traffic on your simulated highways with real
headlights, why would you care?

--
Jim Pennino

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Unless the highway goes through a tunnel....... : (

You're behind the power curve.

--
Jim Pennino

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On Feb 1, 12:28 pm, Mxsmanic wrote:
Is it a bad idea to fly VFR at night

Yes.

If you actually flew, then you'd know that the Bogeyman comes out at
night... and he makes your engine run rough for no good reason at all,
and will let you fly right smack into a cloud without being able to
see it in front of you, and play tricks on your eyes when you are
descending on short final, and all kinds of other Bad Stuff (tm).

Now having said that, I've flown a lot at night, single engine, vfr,
and I'm still alive after doing it regularly for ten years. In real
airplanes too. I think the Bogeyman might be scared of me. But I do
try to stay in gliding distance of a highway wherever possible. If the
Bogeyman does hop onto my wing at night like a bad Twilight Zone
episode with William Shatner, , I'd rather take my chances on a dead
stick landing with the wires crossing the road and the cars, than the
unseeable terrain in the dark. And yes, I'll leave the landing light
on for the duration.

On Feb 1, 2:34*pm, wrote:
On Feb 1, 12:28 pm, Mxsmanic wrote:

Is it a bad idea to fly VFR at night

Yes.

If you actually flew, then you'd know that the Bogeyman comes out at
night... and he makes your engine run rough for no good reason at all,
and will let you fly right smack into a cloud without being able to
see it in front of you, and play tricks on your eyes when you are
descending on short final, and all kinds of other Bad Stuff (tm).

Now having said that, I've flown a lot at night, single engine, vfr,
and I'm still alive after doing it regularly for ten years. In real
airplanes too. I think the Bogeyman might be scared of me. But I do
try to stay in gliding distance of a highway wherever possible. If the
Bogeyman does hop onto my wing at night like a bad Twilight Zone
episode with William Shatner, , I'd rather take my chances on a dead
stick landing with the wires crossing the road and the cars, than the
unseeable terrain in the dark. *And yes, I'll leave the landing light
on for the duration.

Unless you don't like what you see toward the end, then just turn it
off...

wrote:
Now having said that, I've flown a lot at night, single engine, vfr,
and I'm still alive after doing it regularly for ten years. In real
airplanes too. I think the Bogeyman might be scared of me. But I do
try to stay in gliding distance of a highway wherever possible. If the
Bogeyman does hop onto my wing at night like a bad Twilight Zone
episode with William Shatner, , I'd rather take my chances on a dead
stick landing with the wires crossing the road and the cars, than the
unseeable terrain in the dark. And yes, I'll leave the landing light
on for the duration.

Unless you don't like what you see toward the end, then just turn it
off...


Why? Impact will extinguish it soon enough.



--
Mortimer Schnerd, RN
mschnerdatcarolina.rr.com

On Feb 1, 1:28*pm, Mxsmanic wrote:
Is it a bad idea to fly VFR at night and navigate by following highways? *At
night outside large cities, there doesn't seem to be much else that's visible.
It seems to me that if you can clearly see the highway, it can guide you and
you can get a good idea of where you are with respect to terrain, so it should
work. *Are there hidden dangers in this? *Do night VFR pilots ever/often
navigate by following highways? *What other forms of visual navigation are
usable at night?

I would suggest doing a flight then at night so you could find out.
Perhaps along some mountain passes with 3.1 statue mile visibility,
with appropriate distance from clouds. Please lets us know after you
done this flight.

paul k. sanchez writes:

I would suggest doing a flight then at night so you could find out.
Perhaps along some mountain passes with 3.1 statue mile visibility,
with appropriate distance from clouds. Please lets us know after you
done this flight.

I've done that, but with radio navigation aids. Even so, it was pretty
harrowing.

In rec.aviation.piloting Mxsmanic wrote:
paul k. sanchez writes:

I would suggest doing a flight then at night so you could find out.
Perhaps along some mountain passes with 3.1 statue mile visibility,
with appropriate distance from clouds. Please lets us know after you
done this flight.

I've done that, but with radio navigation aids. Even so, it was pretty
harrowing.

You sound like a very small child.

You know sims are pretend, don't you?

--
Jim Pennino

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In article ,
wrote:

In rec.aviation.piloting Mxsmanic wrote:
paul k. sanchez writes:

I would suggest doing a flight then at night so you could find out.
Perhaps along some mountain passes with 3.1 statue mile visibility,
with appropriate distance from clouds. Please lets us know after you
done this flight.

I've done that, but with radio navigation aids. Even so, it was pretty
harrowing.

You sound like a very small child.

You know sims are pretend, don't you?

Sadly, he doesn't, no.

In rec.aviation.piloting Steve Hix wrote:
In article ,
wrote:

In rec.aviation.piloting Mxsmanic wrote:
paul k. sanchez writes:

I would suggest doing a flight then at night so you could find out.
Perhaps along some mountain passes with 3.1 statue mile visibility,
with appropriate distance from clouds. Please lets us know after you
done this flight.

I've done that, but with radio navigation aids. Even so, it was pretty
harrowing.

You sound like a very small child.

You know sims are pretend, don't you?

Sadly, he doesn't, no.

Yeah, probably not.

While a 4 year old who has watched a scary movie can be reassured by
"it is just pretend", I don't think he is capable of understanding
"pretend".


--
Jim Pennino

Remove .spam.sux to reply.

Mxsmanic wrote in
:

paul k. sanchez writes:

I would suggest doing a flight then at night so you could find out.
Perhaps along some mountain passes with 3.1 statue mile visibility,
with appropriate distance from clouds. Please lets us know after you
done this flight.

I've done that, but with radio navigation aids. Even so, it was pretty
harrowing.


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