Night VFR Jabiru or similiar to hire?

[Nobody]

RFguy,

 

Like there are VFR days and VFR days so too at night, the weather and conditions can make big difference. On a clear night with a moon fullter than 3/4 up you don't need night vision goggles. Let your eyes adjust and you can actually see quite well... Fly high and plan your flight from suitable landing location to suitable landing location so that if you have an engine issue you know where you are heading....

 

Night vision goggles wont be the solution you think they are. As well as loosing peripheral vision, you lose depth perception and some need to account for the differing focusing from inside the cockpit to outside the cockpit. You have also introduced a situation where the failure of the goggles would lead to a worse situation than not having them to begin with.

 

Nobody

[RFguy]

RFguy,

 

Like there are VFR days and VFR days so too at night, the weather and conditions can make big difference. On a clear night with a moon fullter than 3/4 up you don't need night vision goggles. Let your eyes adjust and you can actually see quite well... Fly high and plan your flight from suitable landing location to suitable landing location so that if you have an engine issue you know where you are heading....

 

Night vision goggles wont be the solution you think they are. As well as loosing peripheral vision, you lose depth perception and some need to account for the differing focusing from inside the cockpit to outside the cockpit. You have also introduced a situation where the failure of the goggles would lead to a worse situation than not having them to begin with.

 

Nobody

yeah agreed on the complications. and a 3/4 moon. as long as there isn't something in the cockpit cooking your eyes. --

 

I would guess red instrument lights are best because they don't affect your sensitive green end of the vision range.

[turboplanner]

I read the full history on this topic. There are plenty of robust opinions. Both sides of the story and argument for and against have been presented ....

This is the danger of going on websites and sniffing the breeze instead of learning to fly with an isntructor providing all the details.

People don't know what they don't know.

My recommendation is to take a look at the ATSB and NTSB reports on Night VFR accidents and read them for a week or so, or you could just look at the early morning departures out of Roma in Queensland.

IFR is very safe because of the equipment, flight plans, training and recency. Night VFR is not IFR

[RFguy]

indeed

a good dose of reality : sobering reading the stats and some accident summaries :

 

https://www.atsb.gov.au/media/4475634/ar-2012-122.pdf

[planedriver]

Whatever facts are presented, there will always be a minority who know better because they've been lucky so far. And of course we hope it may continue.

[APenNameAndThatA]

So don't do it. We fly for fun and no one is forcing you to do it. Just remember that there are plenty of people who do it, regularly and enjoy it. There are also others that would never fly in an aircraft powered by a 2 stroke or one that is not certified. Don't impose your own perception of risk and reward onto others....

He didn't impose his anything on anyone, FFS.

[old man emu]

My first thoughts when joining this discussion was to lament the fact that whenever a "safety" topic comes up, it always focuses on the "worst case scenario". While those situations have a possibility to arise, one must look at the probability of their happening. A factor that needs to be considered is the frequency for emergency landings in all operations, day and night. Are planes failing in the air at an alarming rate? Modern engine design and construction is vastly different from that of one hundred or so years ago. Many lessons were learned then, and we benefit from them.

 

As in any activity that requires acquired skills, currency is an essential factor in maintaining a desirable standard. Regular flights at night, even if simply a quick trip to the training area and then back to shoot some circuits, will maintain currency to a degree.

 

One factor that is out of a pilot's control is the weather. A forecast, and current information from other aircraft operating in the area are important. But atmospheric conditions can change quickly. For example, when I woke this morning, the sky was clear. An hour later the house and surrounds were fogged in. I wasn't expecting that. In relation to night flying, that sort of sudden fog formation would put your local airfield out of service.

 

It is a shame that on one hand we cry out against the media constantly pushing the idea that anything smaller than an RPT aircraft will plummet from the sky without warning, while those who participate in non-commercial aviation try to promote the idea that it is safer than ground transport. On the other hand, when we start talking about non-commercial aviation amongst its practitioners, it regularly turns to the ways that you can kill yourself doing it.

 

There's no doubt that being aware of what can cause loss of control, and how to deal with the need for off-field landings are necessary skills, but most pilots will only have to practise responses to them, rather than deal with them in reality. Nearly 100% of the average pilot's flights will be uneventful. Like computer programs, pilots need to have an effective sub-routine for each emergency, but that those subroutines need to be be included in the pilot's programming in the form "If ....., then goto ....."