Timeline for How do pilots see at night if airplanes don't have front lights?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
10 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jun 15, 2016 at 23:57 | comment | added | Lnafziger | That's a good picture, but if you really want to show off some bright landing lights, you should use a more appropriate aircraft.... like, say a Pilatus (I swear, every time that I see one I think that it's a 747). | |
| Feb 7, 2015 at 6:32 | vote | accept | User | ||
| Jan 30, 2015 at 7:35 | comment | added | vasin1987 | @SteveV. Any special requirement for aircraft to be certified for night flight? If yes, maybe you can add that to the answer :) | |
| Jan 30, 2015 at 4:30 | comment | added | jamesqf | @reirab: Yes, that's what I meant, that headlights wouldn't be much use for seeing obstacles at altitude. (And are in fact often counterproductive, with reflection from any haze destroying your night vision.) Landing of course is a different matter, or even doing a low pass beforehand to scare the deer/cows/whatever. | |
| Jan 29, 2015 at 22:35 | comment | added | reirab | @SteveV. That's great. I must admit that I have actually landed on a runway that had dogs on it, though (a real runway, not a sim.) The dogs entered the runway after I touched down, but I exited the runway before I got anywhere close to them. | |
| Jan 29, 2015 at 22:33 | comment | added | reirab | @jamesqf That's not really true for GA aircraft. At touchdown (when the landing light is useful,) the Cherokee I fly is slower than I normally drive on the highway. At cruise, it's significantly faster, but there (thankfully) aren't many obstacles at cruise altitude. | |
| Jan 29, 2015 at 22:28 | comment | added | Steve V. | @reirab - I used to tell students in our simulator that I had spotted a dog on the runway when I wanted them to execute a go-around. One time a student responded "Don't worry, we'll win." and landed. | |
| Jan 29, 2015 at 22:24 | comment | added | jamesqf | At the speeds airplanes travel, headlights wouldn't be much use to illuminate stuff in front of you, anyway. Most people overdrive their car headlights at night, and light planes typically travel at least twice as fast. | |
| Jan 29, 2015 at 21:54 | comment | added | reirab | The landing lights can be helpful for seeing, say, the stray dog on the runway, though. :) In general, though, yeah, they're more useful for being seen than anything else. For that matter, headlights are useful for that purpose on cars, as well. | |
| Jan 29, 2015 at 21:28 | history | answered | Steve V. | CC BY-SA 3.0 |