Great critical thinking skills in all your videos. You both naturally critique once on the ground. Staying humble is staying alive in many respects. This aviation channel is super underrated!
Forget the VASI. The runway was still lit up like a christmas tree was CLEARLY low and climbing up the windscreen. What more clues do you want? You can always bleed off excess height with flaps and idle rpm, but you cannot climb quickly out of terrain that is almost higher than you. This is a classic case of NOT LOOKING OUT OF THE WINDOW and seeing the blindingly obvious. Sometimes you need to get your head out of the displays and actually look where you are going! Well done for having the honesty to upload.
Flying a standard pattern when VFR easily avoids this and most other silly things pilots do when landing. There was an unnecessary exposure to risk here. Taking an iPad out in lieu of looking outside really concerned me. Eyes inside the cockpit is a possible reason you wound up in this situation, adding more reasons to keep eyes inside the cockpit when so close to the ground worried me. Especially if we're unsure if we're about to fly "into" said ground. Holy cow. Doing a VFR straight in approach at dusk, at a new airport, and unfamiliar terrain isn’t a good idea without immaculate preflight planning. The comment “is there a VASI on this side?” hints that preflight planning might not have been as strong as it could've. Sure it's all available on ForeFlight, but actually knowing it for yourself if a different thing. The PIC is responsible to know all info about the airport and runways they are going to. A list of everything we need to be familiar with is outlined in 91.103, please follow it and stay out of trouble guys.
3:30 "We are not clearing this terrain by much..." (no action taken) 3:55 Still descending (no action taken) 4:00 any VASI? 4:15 Still descending.... (no action taken)= CFIT
Good habit is to use the 300'/nm rule (roughly 3° glide slope) in the absence of VASI/PAPIs. Planning to arrive at 1500' agl 5 nm out from the runway and descending 300' every NM should place the aircraft in a safe position to land, and maintain good obstacle clearance. Or if the aircraft is equipped, AND you have some instrument training, load an ILS or GPS approach to that runway and use the lateral and vertical guidance along with normal VFR procedures to keep you on a stable glide-path to the runway. Just so everyone understand, you are still flying VFR, but utilizing all available tools to you.
You'll end up like your keyboard, In 2 pieces :p thanks for having the balls to share. I occasionally fly into small strips in a Saab 340 at night. Sometimes without slope guidance. REALLY has you on your toes! Follow distance and 3 degree profile is one thing, but making sure the approach plate isn't more then 3 degrees is another huge fatal trap. I always have the captain call my distance and heights for every mile.
I find that dimming the interior and panel lights as low as possible helps with this type of situation. (so low that you can "just" read the instruments)
You will never get optimum night vision even with some light outside when inside is bright. Years ago I did a lot of country riding on a motorcycle at night. My instrument lights weren't bright anyway and I put tape over the hi-beam on light but not completely blocking it. There was a marked improvement in my night vision, especially helpful in a country full of critters that love coming out at night.
Re: Blackhole at KMPV Thank you! - I kept looking for the VASI and feeling a bit as if I were with you - I was getting "that feeling" - I should have looked at the approach chart with you. I will file that video away in my brain - I fear I get too reliant on visual approach navaids (not smart), and conditions being those that I either had when I planned the flight - or even ATIS..... I want to be an old pilot - I'm not so bold. Thank you again you're sharing you're "embarrassment could save a life (possibly mine).
That, I think, is one of the best 'accident chain' examples out there. It's not totally dark, It's not totally mountainous, etc. But it does show why a straight in into a unfamiliar airport might not be a good idea. And that night VFR is always a form of IFR. You got to fly it by the numbers.
Yes. Even before the revisions to the Advisory Circular on pattern entry in April of 2018, a straight in approach during VFR flight was discouraged, unless instructed by ATC. Recommended entry would have been on the 45 for left downwind. My CFI hammered me for doing a straight-in after coming back from a solo cross-country during my PPL training.
I’ve got a good black hole story. PS03 Landing into the sunset. I needed my fellow pilot friend to call out altitudes all the way down. One of the scariest things I’ve done. We are all one bad day away from a bad ending. Knowing that will hopefully keep us safe!
At 4:23 in the video, you are 2 miles out but 400' below the MDA, i.e., 1940 vs 1540. You may have the airport in sight but that does not mean you have descent to the runway at 1540.
It's part of the flight track, but not shown on the website. f you export the flight track, you can pull it up in third-party applications that display this information. For example, you can export it as a .kml file and open it in Google Earth to see your altitude and airspeed throughout the flight.
This is why I am a proponent of EVS technology for VFR. (I know not cheap) but it adds a definite layer of safety. With EVS pilots would see the terrain coming and add the information to their scan.
+Stephane Demers synthetic vision on ForeFlight was available, but wasn't being monitored as closely as it should've been due to the co-pilot (me) not fully digesting that he should've been a co-pilot rather than a passenger. A review of the SV footage shows the danger fairly clearly (although it doesn't account for the trees and implies more clearance than we actually had).
