Night VFR Class B Great Lakes EEEKS!

[minitour]

Hey all, did my first PIC night XC tonight and decided to go up to CLE as one of the legs...wow...how weird...looking out to the lake was just like looking out to a big black nothingness....other than that the flight was great...just wondered if anyone else had any comments on night flying over H2O? Is it always that weird?

-mini

 

[Rythm3]

Yep, you are absolutely correct about that. I fly out of NEW (Lakefront, New Orleans, LA), and if you takeoff to the north over the lake at night, you had better be on the gauges. It is just like you said, looking into a black hole.

 

[mar]

Remember JFK, Jr.

Low experience pilot, high performance aircraft, hazy skies and trying to beat the darkness....

It's a recipie for disaster.

Be careful over the water or desolate terrain. Best advice is to just avoid it unless you have an instrument rating *and* you're proficient.

If you press on you better have a good scan and be knowledgeable about the various illusions (visual and somatogravic) you may experience.

I'll buy a beer for the first person to give a good definition of somatogravic.

 

[wingnutt]

I'll buy a beer for the first person to give a good definition of somatogravic.

well...

...i think i know the direction you were going, although the path you have taken is a bit weedy, and i am unable to identify it.

somatosensory refers to sensory stimuli coming from the skin and internal organs and the perception that accompanies these stimuli, but i've yet to hear or see it spelled in the manor that you have utilized

 

[mar]

Whadya drink?

I'll buy that. What the heck. I don't think I've even used that word since my flight physiology class in 1986.

And the text for that class was written in the 60s I think.

Talk about weedy and overgrown.

 

[minitour]

Low experience pilot, high performance aircraft, hazy skies and trying to beat the darkness....

It's a recipie for disaster.

Be careful over the water or desolate terrain. Best advice is to just avoid it unless you have an instrument rating *and* you're proficient.

If you press on you better have a good scan and be knowledgeable about the various illusions (visual and somatogravic) you may experience.

I'll buy a beer for the first person to give a good definition of somatogravic.

...thats what I was thinking...to myself last night I kept thinking "why do they let you go VFR over H20 at night?" I just couldn't imagine trying to do that on a regular basis without the IFR rating...amazing...anyway glad to hear I wasn't concerned with something stupid...

...actually at one point I wasn't quite sure where we were...had to use some VOR radials to figure out where we were...not fun trying to maintain Ctr of a Victor airway and switch the VOR radio and radials on one VOR radio...don't think I'll be doing another one of those XCs in THAT plane...yikes...

somatogravic...I read that in the Jepp instrument book...something about turning and when you roll out you feel like you're turing the other way...is that the one? tryin to mezmorize all of these "illusions" is a b*tch...

later
-mini

 

[BD King]

SOMATOGRAVIC.............PFM. Pure magic. An illusion followed by rapid motions of butt grabbing. ..................Mar, is that worth a Moosehead?

 

[mar]

The grabbing of buttocks...

...and the puckering of sphincters.

Yes. That's it. Been there, grabbed that.

Somato--relates to the body.
Gravity--of course, relates to where the earth is.

Fun, fun, fun.

 

[BD King]

...and the puckering of sphincters.

Yes. That's it. Been there, grabbed that.

Somato--relates to the body.
Gravity--of course, relates to where the earth is.

Fun, fun, fun.

Ah, yes. The profusion of donut holes normally associated with and a part of the left seat of a twin beech used for freight hauling.

 

[BD King]

However, the Great Lakes at night can produce some great sights. One October night I was VFR in a 340 going to Palwaukee and following the shore line about 1000 agl. Around Meigs, one of the passengers grabbed my shoulder, pointed to the East and asked what the hell that was......What it was, was a full harvest moon, and the illusion was that it was five times its normal size and rising from the center of Lake Michigan. T'was outstanding...............And that folks, is one of the reasons we fly, and screw around with airplanes.

 

[ThomasR]

Night VFR

Makes you want to become an Astronaut.

 

[Cat Driver]

Somatogravic??? isn't that when you lose your consentration on what you are doing and close your eyes and gain a stroke while changing hands?

 

[Pirate at Forty]

http://www.airsafe.com/events/celebs/jfk_jr.htm

 

[BD King]

Somatogravic??? isn't that when you lose your consentration on what you are doing and close your eyes and gain a stroke while changing hands?

No. That's sodomogravic.

 

[CDVdriver]

In my mind there is no such thing as VFR at night over water.

That is IMC by any other definition.
We fly on the coast at SW Florida, with every student I'll take them over water and have them do a turn. 9 out of 10 lose it (unusual attitudes) within one turn.
Last one rolled into >60 degree bank while making a traffic call on a unicom frequency. Made it to 1500fpm rate of descent before I took over...
unless you have an instrument rating be very VERY carefull with (socalled) VFR at night over water.

 

[Lead Sled]

I love flying at night. But...

VFR XC, over water, at night, in a single?

Sorry guy, you've got more cajones than I have and I'm fearless.

Lead Sled