TLPTPW - The Warped Sense of Humor Edition

Chris S
Chris S
Joined: 27 Aug 05
Posts: 2469
Credit: 19550265
RAC: 0

It's our resident librarian

It's our resident librarian agrarian Gibraltarian! Actually old chap the evening traditionally begins at 5pm, after a days work. You are though 1 hour ahead of the UK, so I can say good evening your time now. Night begins at dusk.

 

 

Waiting for Godot & salvation :-)

Why do doctors have to practice?
You'd think they'd have got it right by now

Gary Charpentier
Gary Charpentier
Joined: 13 Jun 06
Posts: 2055
Credit: 105832404
RAC: 60670

Chris S_2 wrote:Night begins

Chris S_2 wrote:
Night begins at dusk.

Huh?

http://www.dictionary.com/browse/dusk wrote:
the state or period of partial darkness between day and night

Sounds like night begins when dusk ends, not when it starts.

RandyC
RandyC
Joined: 18 Jan 05
Posts: 6578
Credit: 111139797
RAC: 0

Just popping in to let you

Just popping in to let you know I'm still around...and the winning trigger is still pending.

Keep on keeping on!

Seti Classic Final Total: 11446 WU.

Mike Hewson
Mike Hewson
Moderator
Joined: 1 Dec 05
Posts: 6588
Credit: 311654655
RAC: 110759

How many twilights would you

How many twilights would you like : civil, nautical or astronomical ?  I had to learn the first during pilot training as under Visual Flight Rules we had to land, or at least plan for landing, at least 30 minutes before civil dusk. In fact the flight school insisted on 45 minutes because they owned the planes. Mutatis mutandis taking off was limited to 30/45 minutes after civil dawn. Can't have trainee pilots flying around in the dark. To do so ( legally ) one has to be certified under Instrument Flight Rules, though in general our flight safety authority ( CASA ) has a blizzard of rulings and special cases depending upon who/what/where/why etc. For example helicopter operations to/from shore & rigs in our Gippsland offshore natural gas fields. Plus there are several other requirements, mostly weather and flight path related, to determine whether one can operate under VFR or not in a given circumstance. No one wants to meet that pesky goat, day or night :

mountain_goat.jpg

Cheers, Mike. 

I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...

... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal

Gary Charpentier
Gary Charpentier
Joined: 13 Jun 06
Posts: 2055
Credit: 105832404
RAC: 60670

Ah, yes VFR.  Here in the

Ah, yes VFR.  Here in the USA, VFR at night is permitted.  It is wonderful to be flying after dark.  Of course you must be current, 3 night takeoffs and landings to a full stop within the last 90 days.  Wouldn't dream of it except with a CAVU forecast.  Also have SVFR.  Here in the Smog and Palm Tree capital there is a lot of call for SVFR.  The smog layer sets in and on the ground you have a mile vis, but at 2000 AGL unrestricted vis.  Makes you sad to see that crap you will be breathing once you are back on the ground.

 

Mike Hewson
Mike Hewson
Moderator
Joined: 1 Dec 05
Posts: 6588
Credit: 311654655
RAC: 110759

Yep, we can do night VFR/SVFR

Yep, we can do night VFR/SVFR but you have to be IFR certified ( and certain craft are excluded ) if it all goes bad. I've tagged along several times on some great clear summer nights. Magic. The local landing strip has full night lights, triggerable remotely ( various methods including a call to a certain number via your mobile phone ! ). I was also briefly taught how to interact with the Melbourne controlled airspace guys should it all go belly up ( ie. even when you are in general airspace they still have you on the plot, of course ) : you set your squawk code to whatever they designate, they can then fix your position ( if you are above 500 feet local datum, there's a radar blocking ridge b/w Yarra Glen & Tullamarine ) and then assuming you know what that means you recover from your problem. The main stressor is a string of tall high voltage pylons a few miles south of the field. Of course that implies you have declared some variety of distress/emergency. I'm told the main issue to overcome in such instances is pilot panic, not because of imminent disaster but because one is well out of comfort zone. The tendency is to create a pressure to do something - anything - and that is not the way to work the situation. The secondary error is to wait too long before calling for assistance, usually because of worry about 'getting in trouble' in some official sense, when in fact that is not relevant. If you crash someone will find out about that anyway, so choose life. 'Controlled flight into terrain' is never a good outcome. Unless you hit a jelly mountain, the chocolate gateau houses, or the marshmallow plains, or have a fancy plane with a chute recovery system. :-O

In Beijing commercial jets routinely land in daytime via instruments as no ground sighting is available !

Cheers, Mike.

I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...

... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal

Chris S
Chris S
Joined: 27 Aug 05
Posts: 2469
Credit: 19550265
RAC: 0

The start and end points of

The start and end points of time for a night vary, based on factors such as season, latitude, longitude and timezone. Twilight is the time of night when the sky is illuminated by the sun but the sun is below the horizon.

Most people would say that night begins when the sun is below the horizon. Yes there is a time when it is not pitch black which is called dusk or twilight. And there are some areas of the world where it never gets truly dark anyway as in the Land of the midnight sun.

@Mike - I though modern jets like 747's etc could land on autopilot?

Night

Waiting for Godot & salvation :-)

Why do doctors have to practice?
You'd think they'd have got it right by now

Mike Hewson
Mike Hewson
Moderator
Joined: 1 Dec 05
Posts: 6588
Credit: 311654655
RAC: 110759

Chris S_2 wrote:@Mike - I

Chris S_2 wrote:
@Mike - I though modern jets like 747's etc could land on autopilot?

Some do, though pilots are preferred eg. A380. But I never got to fly one of them. :-)

The craft I flew were 70's & 80's era light plane designs ( Piper Archer ). We had 'steam gauge' instruments that could only be wrecked by a hammer or gunshot eg. direct reading barometers for altitude. No electricity required. I've been in 'glass cockpits' where everything is digital. No hardware backup. 

Cheers, Mike.

I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to make it shorter ...

... and my other CPU is a Ryzen 5950X :-) Blaise Pascal

Chris S
Chris S
Joined: 27 Aug 05
Posts: 2469
Credit: 19550265
RAC: 0

When I went to Vancouver last

When I went to Vancouver last Autumn I flew each way on a BA A380 Airbus and I thought that both landings were a "liittle" heavy, so maybe it was manually controlled. But weren't autopilots designed to automatically land a plane in thick fog, i.e. as soon as the tower confirms that you are on the correct glidepath you punch in the autopilot, and the pilot and co-pilot on the flight deck then oversee the landing with manual over-ride if necessary.

 

Waiting for Godot & salvation :-)

Why do doctors have to practice?
You'd think they'd have got it right by now

mikey
mikey
Joined: 22 Jan 05
Posts: 12656
Credit: 1839052099
RAC: 4471

Chris S_2 wrote:When I went

Chris S_2 wrote:
When I went to Vancouver last Autumn I flew each way on a BA A380 Airbus and I thought that both landings were a "liittle" heavy, so maybe it was manually controlled. But weren't autopilots designed to automatically land a plane in thick fog, i.e. as soon as the tower confirms that you are on the correct glidepath you punch in the autopilot, and the pilot and co-pilot on the flight deck then oversee the landing with manual over-ride if necessary. 

Didn't that Korean jet that crashed going into San Fransisco crash because he had the autopilot on and it was set to a lower than real zero ground level? Meaning it was set to a negative ground level for San Francisco so he hit the seawall when trying to land with the plane thinking it was higher than it really was. Sad part was the co-pilot KNEW it and didn't say anything!! Seems Korean pilots are 'gods' when they are flying and NO ONE tells them when they are wrong, they said it's a 'culture thing' and may take a LONG time to change.

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.