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Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 Disappearance
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<blockquote data-quote="AntiTrace" data-source="post: 474458" data-attributes="member: 2903"><p><strong>RE: Malaysia Airlines Flight Missing Over Vietnam</strong></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Commercial airlines always fly on IFR flight plans. That is, they fly solely off the instruments in the cockpit without the need to look outside. An airliner at cruise altitude will have no need to look outside. They go visual (look outside) for takeoffs and landings. </p><p></p><p>Night time is only a risk if the pilot can not see a horizon during an emergency. Again, there is no need for the pilot to look outside but having a visual horizon makes it easier to determine what the aircraft is doing without referencing the instruments. </p><p></p><p>The pitot tube incident (Air France?) is an example of that. The pitot tubes froze over which caused all airspeed signals to be lost. That kicked off the autopilot. The pilot then entered a stall. Referencing his instruments, he noticed he was descending and his natural reaction was to pull pack on the controls to initiate a climb, which does nothing but increase the severity of the stall. If the plane hadn't been in the clouds and the pilot had been able to see outside and reference a horizon, he probably would have been able to recover it. </p><p></p><p>I'm not saying that you have to see the horizon during an emergency. You can reference the attitude indicator in the cockpit, which is what you use anytime your flying without a natural horizon. However, not being able to see a horizon just adds more stress to an already stressful situation. </p><p></p><p>You actually don't even need an attitude indicator! It's possible to determine what the plane is doing just looking at airspeed, heading, and altitude. It's not easy by any means, but its possible.</p><p></p><p>So I wouldn't consider night flights any more risk than day flights for a commercial pilot. For a private pilot flying around at a few thousand feet its riskier, but not for a professional commercial pilot cruising at 30k.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Planes don't just go missing though. Something will turn up in a few days. It's a horrible event regardless.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="AntiTrace, post: 474458, member: 2903"] [b]RE: Malaysia Airlines Flight Missing Over Vietnam[/b] Commercial airlines always fly on IFR flight plans. That is, they fly solely off the instruments in the cockpit without the need to look outside. An airliner at cruise altitude will have no need to look outside. They go visual (look outside) for takeoffs and landings. Night time is only a risk if the pilot can not see a horizon during an emergency. Again, there is no need for the pilot to look outside but having a visual horizon makes it easier to determine what the aircraft is doing without referencing the instruments. The pitot tube incident (Air France?) is an example of that. The pitot tubes froze over which caused all airspeed signals to be lost. That kicked off the autopilot. The pilot then entered a stall. Referencing his instruments, he noticed he was descending and his natural reaction was to pull pack on the controls to initiate a climb, which does nothing but increase the severity of the stall. If the plane hadn't been in the clouds and the pilot had been able to see outside and reference a horizon, he probably would have been able to recover it. I'm not saying that you have to see the horizon during an emergency. You can reference the attitude indicator in the cockpit, which is what you use anytime your flying without a natural horizon. However, not being able to see a horizon just adds more stress to an already stressful situation. You actually don't even need an attitude indicator! It's possible to determine what the plane is doing just looking at airspeed, heading, and altitude. It's not easy by any means, but its possible. So I wouldn't consider night flights any more risk than day flights for a commercial pilot. For a private pilot flying around at a few thousand feet its riskier, but not for a professional commercial pilot cruising at 30k. Planes don't just go missing though. Something will turn up in a few days. It's a horrible event regardless. [/QUOTE]
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