----- Original Message -----
From: "Tim Weert" <tim.weert@hccnet.nl>
Subject: Europa-List: RE: What's your position on Night and IMC privileges
for Permit
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| Hi Europa operators,
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| Being able to operate your aircraft under IMC is the best life insurance
you can have. If you entrance unforeseen IMC during your VFR flight it will
safe your day. Being able to fly safe under IMC needs only more skills and
recurrent training than many VFR pilots expect. Commercial pilots train at
least 4 simulator sessions a year to keep their licence valid. So once
again, I agree that training and practising IFR flying is a must. MS Flight
simulator is a nice tool to improve your instrument scan, but practising in
your own aircraft is the best way to get enough exposure to fly IFR,
assuming your plane is IFR equipped.
|
| But this story has also a other side. In the first place, if I have an
engine failure or cabin fire, I always want to be able to make a safe forced
landing. That means that I require at least VFR minima below the cloud layer
I am flying into or above. To be able to see what I am doing during my
emergency landing, daylight is a must. Remember Murphys Law, if it happens,
it will happen at the worst moment.
| If I want to fly at night or in real IMC (to ground level), I only feel
myself safe in an IFR equipped twin aircraft. Than an engine may fail
because Im still able to make a single engine IFR approach.
| I would like to encourage you all to improve your skills and at the same
time to keep a safe weather limitation + margin in mind.
|
| Fly safe,
|
| Tim.
| ----------------
Gee, I don't know, Tim,
Although being current in instruments is of course ideal, achieving
that currency can be tough. Actually those four practice sessions Commercial
and ATP do are really two practice and two are licence tests. That's usually
more than doctors and lawyers practice I understand, but they say each case
is a test - the fact is when they fail a test someone else pays.
The rule is: Doctors bury their mistakes, lawyers hang theirs but
pilots taste their fate before their passengers.
A twin a night - most have two engines so the second takes you to
the scene of the prang. If it happens at the worst moment then the forced
landing will be in mature trees - night has nothing to do with it! I always
carry a fifty-foot to climb down afterward.
Cheers, Ferg
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