On Tue, 05 Oct 2004 05:03:48 GMT, Shiver Me Timbers
wrote:

Now my curious question back... and perhaps Del could take a shot at
this considering where he lives and the fog and weather that he would
encounter in some of the coastal and inland regions.

How about a FLIR installed. Pointing forwards obviously.

Cost aside.... What sort of benefit could a pilot get from being able
to see what's ahead of them by having a FLIR display in the cockpit.

Don't know if you've been reading the trade magazines Shiver, but a
kind of forward looking viewing process has been developed with Alaska
as the testing area.

It's essentially a very expensive two part large screen GPS display.
It shows, in color, the terrain in a forward level 3D view as well as
a moving map display, also in color.

My understanding is that the terrain information is extremely
accurate, as it has to be, and the definition of the forward looking
display has to be seen to be believed. It appears you could literally
fly up a canyon in dense fog, or let down through a cloud canopy to a
landing strip surrounded by mountains with no danger, as you can see
via the screen as if it were a cloudless day.

The rub? It costs upwards to $80,000 per installation.

The neat thing about this kind of display is that it does not require
a radar or infra red scope to be installed out on the wing for it to
function. A GPS antenna, or several, is all that is needed. That,
panel space and lots of money that is. And also the guts to attempt
to fly in zero zero conditions and trust the screens.

See: http://www.cheltonflightsystems.com/features.htm

Corky Scott