I know a lot people here only visit for the forums, but we're continuing to generate some magazine-style content, and hope to add more soon.

Last week, we published a great piece written by long time BCP member MTV, titled PVFR and the Single Pilot about the dangers of low-contrast VFR conditions. Thanks Mike for the great read, even Gump gave the thumbs up.

Check the Home Base page periodically for new articles and knowledge base updates.

I was able to read the article via the hyperlink in your note but I can't find Home Base on he TapaTalk menu (on my iPhone).

What am I missing?

Thanks,
Joseph

Great article. I love the format of our site!

51E wrote:I was able to read the article via the hyperlink in your note but I can't find Home Base on he TapaTalk menu (on my iPhone).

What am I missing?

Thanks,
Joseph

Tapatalk only provides access to the forum, it's not a total site mobile solution.

Excellent article by MTV. Especially as a head's up for new guys who may be heading into their first winter of flying in the North, or anywhere you have large tracts of featureless land with flat light conditions.

I flew out of Kotzebue off and on over 20 years for several outfits, my last five years there were as lead pilot at the station for my airline. Part of my duties were to give specific white-out training to the new guys coming on board, and give them a realistic taste of just how f**ked up and dangerous it is flying in that stuff.

First off, it is NOT IMC. But is IS IMC. Personally, I think actual IMC is pretty easy, simple flying. And I don't mean working in the system, I mean just flying the airplane on the gauges. Everything is slow and easy, no steep turns, no radical moves. Just straight and level, up and down, left and right... Simple.

In white-out conditions you aren't in the clouds, and there might be a 5,000 ft ceiling and 20 miles visibility. That's what screws you up. The ground and sky become invisible, or as Mike says, a milk bottle, but objects with contrast can be seen miles and miles away.

You lose the horizon, as ground and sky are same color and contrast, so Mark I eyeballs start having a hard time telling you where up and down are. Then, and this is the biggie problem, you start picking out objects visible on the ground. A row a willow along a creek, a river bank with bare earth exposed... Lots of stuff. So what you say? Well, Mark I eyeballs send that info to your brain, which then trys to compute what's going on since the horizon has disappeared, and it goes "Ah Ha!!!" "We have found a new horizon to set the middle ear to."

Problem is, that row of willow that your brain thinks is where straight and level should be, might actually be 60 degrees off from the actual horizon. So what a VFR guy does is go, "Hmmmm, I've somehow got myself into a steep descending turn in this crap, I'd better level out and pull the nose up." You do that, and your brain might feel better, but the airplane starts making funny noises real quick as you rack it over 60 degrees and lose airspeed down to a stall in a couple seconds. Meanwhile, you think you're straight and level.

You GOTTA go on the gauges NOW. You can not fly in white-out conditions by looking outside. Period. And on the gauges is harder than shit in that stuff too. Not because IMC is hard, it's not. But because you cheat by sneaking looks outside the airplane, and you set off the optical illusions all over again, and your brain starts screaming "don't believe the gauges," and tells your muscles to move the yoke.

I am not exaggerating in saying that I've done some flights out of Kotz with my hat pulled down as low as I could possibly get it. Every chart and scrap of paper I could find plastered on the windows so I couldn't see outside, and still had my head twisted down to my shoulder and my hand wanting to jerk the wheel 90 degrees one way or the other. All with the gauges showing straight, level, cruise airspeed and me not wanting to believe them.

And it's not just rookies having problems. Out of Kotz and Barrow it seems like at least once a year, an old time guy flys a perfectly good airplane into the tundra in white-out conditions. They don't set altimeters right, or just get caught when the hills suddenly turn invisible, and sit there wondering what that bump was, and why is that fox up in the air staring in my window.

Anyway... It's sneaky stuff, dangerous stuff, not fun at all to fly in stuff. Do not try to poke your nose into it unless you're prepared for IFR immediately.

Rant over, back to my wine.

Gump

GumpAir wrote:Excellent article by MTV. Especially as a head's up for new guys who may be heading into their first winter of flying in the North, or anywhere you have large tracts of featureless land with flat light conditions.

I flew out of Kotzebue off and on over 20 years for several outfits, my last five years there were as lead pilot at the station for my airline. Part of my duties were to give specific white-out training to the new guys coming on board, and give them a realistic taste of just how f**ked up and dangerous it is flying in that stuff.

First off, it is NOT IMC. But is IS IMC. Personally, I think actual IMC is pretty easy, simple flying. And I don't mean working in the system, I mean just flying the airplane on the gauges. Everything is slow and easy, no steep turns, no radical moves. Just straight and level, up and down, left and right... Simple.

In white-out conditions you aren't in the clouds, and there might be a 5,000 ft ceiling and 20 miles visibility. That's what screws you up. The ground and sky become invisible, or as Mike says, a milk bottle, but objects with contrast can be seen miles and miles away.

You lose the horizon, as ground and sky are same color and contrast, so Mark I eyeballs start having a hard time telling you where up and down are. Then, and this is the biggie problem, you start picking out objects visible on the ground. A row a willow along a creek, a river bank with bare earth exposed... Lots of stuff. So what you say? Well, Mark I eyeballs send that info to your brain, which then trys to compute what's going on since the horizon has disappeared, and it goes "Ah Ha!!!" "We have found a new horizon to set the middle ear to."

Problem is, that row of willow that your brain thinks is where straight and level should be, might actually be 60 degrees off from the actual horizon. So what a VFR guy does is go, "Hmmmm, I've somehow got myself into a steep descending turn in this crap, I'd better level out and pull the nose up." You do that, and your brain might feel better, but the airplane starts making funny noises real quick as you rack it over 60 degrees and lose airspeed down to a stall in a couple seconds. Meanwhile, you think you're straight and level.

You GOTTA go on the gauges NOW. You can not fly in white-out conditions by looking outside. Period. And on the gauges is harder than shit in that stuff too. Not because IMC is hard, it's not. But because you cheat by sneaking looks outside the airplane, and you set off the optical illusions all over again, and your brain starts screaming "don't believe the gauges," and tells your muscles to move the yoke.

I am not exaggerating in saying that I've done some flights out of Kotz with my hat pulled down as low as I could possibly get it. Every chart and scrap of paper I could find plastered on the windows so I couldn't see outside, and still had my head twisted down to my shoulder and my hand wanting to jerk the wheel 90 degrees one way or the other. All with the gauges showing straight, level, cruise airspeed and me not wanting to believe them.

And it's not just rookies having problems. Out of Kotz and Barrow it seems like at least once a year, an old time guy flys a perfectly good airplane into the tundra in white-out conditions. They don't set altimeters right, or just get caught when the hills suddenly turn invisible, and sit there wondering what that bump was, and why is that fox up in the air staring in my window.

Anyway... It's sneaky stuff, dangerous stuff, not fun at all to fly in stuff. Do not try to poke your nose into it unless you're prepared for IFR immediately.

Rant over, back to my wine.

Gump

I don't have nearly Gump's experience but I'll second his point. I've got 8 years and 1400 hours of brown-out, white-out, etc. And some "VFR" conditions in combat where you may or may not stretch the minimums to support the guy on the ground...

All in all, pretty confident I could fly VFR in any VFR condition. I experienced my first true "flat light" conditions up North last year. Scared the bajeebus out of me. Holy cow.

And now I'll crack a Miller

GumpAir wrote:Excellent article by MTV. Especially as a head's up for new guys who may be heading into their first winter of flying in the North, or anywhere you have large tracts of featureless land with flat light conditions.

I flew out of Kotzebue off and on over 20 years for several outfits, my last five years there were as lead pilot at the station for my airline. Part of my duties were to give specific white-out training to the new guys coming on board, and give them a realistic taste of just how f**ked up and dangerous it is flying in that stuff.

First off, it is NOT IMC. But is IS IMC. Personally, I think actual IMC is pretty easy, simple flying. And I don't mean working in the system, I mean just flying the airplane on the gauges. Everything is slow and easy, no steep turns, no radical moves. Just straight and level, up and down, left and right... Simple.

In white-out conditions you aren't in the clouds, and there might be a 5,000 ft ceiling and 20 miles visibility. That's what screws you up. The ground and sky become invisible, or as Mike says, a milk bottle, but objects with contrast can be seen miles and miles away.

You lose the horizon, as ground and sky are same color and contrast, so Mark I eyeballs start having a hard time telling you where up and down are. Then, and this is the biggie problem, you start picking out objects visible on the ground. A row a willow along a creek, a river bank with bare earth exposed... Lots of stuff. So what you say? Well, Mark I eyeballs send that info to your brain, which then trys to compute what's going on since the horizon has disappeared, and it goes "Ah Ha!!!" "We have found a new horizon to set the middle ear to."

Problem is, that row of willow that your brain thinks is where straight and level should be, might actually be 60 degrees off from the actual horizon. So what a VFR guy does is go, "Hmmmm, I've somehow got myself into a steep descending turn in this crap, I'd better level out and pull the nose up." You do that, and your brain might feel better, but the airplane starts making funny noises real quick as you rack it over 60 degrees and lose airspeed down to a stall in a couple seconds. Meanwhile, you think you're straight and level.

You GOTTA go on the gauges NOW. You can not fly in white-out conditions by looking outside. Period. And on the gauges is harder than shit in that stuff too. Not because IMC is hard, it's not. But because you cheat by sneaking looks outside the airplane, and you set off the optical illusions all over again, and your brain starts screaming "don't believe the gauges," and tells your muscles to move the yoke.

I am not exaggerating in saying that I've done some flights out of Kotz with my hat pulled down as low as I could possibly get it. Every chart and scrap of paper I could find plastered on the windows so I couldn't see outside, and still had my head twisted down to my shoulder and my hand wanting to jerk the wheel 90 degrees one way or the other. All with the gauges showing straight, level, cruise airspeed and me not wanting to believe them.

And it's not just rookies having problems. Out of Kotz and Barrow it seems like at least once a year, an old time guy flys a perfectly good airplane into the tundra in white-out conditions. They don't set altimeters right, or just get caught when the hills suddenly turn invisible, and sit there wondering what that bump was, and why is that fox up in the air staring in my window.

Anyway... It's sneaky stuff, dangerous stuff, not fun at all to fly in stuff. Do not try to poke your nose into it unless you're prepared for IFR immediately.

Rant over, back to my wine.

Gump

What these guys said x's 2-3-4-5!!!
Scary Shit when it happens!!
Don't listen to your ASS or Your Eyes if you get there, if you even think you are, get on the gauges and believe them!!

This is a very useful article by MTV with good support from Gump. A similar problem happens on pipeline patrol when light rain or snow becomes moderate. Visibility may be five miles out the side window but suddenly less than a mile out the front. Going up is not a good option because of the many towers. GPS to nearest also risks unknown towers. Reversing course and going back down the pipeline, where you know the location of towers, is the best way out.