At 07:55 PM 1/7/99 EST, you wrote: >My coupe has a small venturi on both sides just forward and below the windows. >I have an artificial horizon, DG and a turn indicator. I sometimes wonder if >I really need that stuff. I rarely look at it, except the DG, and only fly >VFR.
It's nice to have those sometimes. I got into instrument conditions twice right after passing my private test, before I got the instrument rating, and both times were at night with clear weather. If you fly at night at all, you might get to use them sometime :-) My first time was in a mountainous area when the ground lights became sparse and started to look like stars. The horizon was hard to distinguish. The second time was with a load of passengers in a 182 taking off from Brown Field in San Diego with a group of about five other airplanes. The "expert" in the group, a 20,000 hour pilot who thought he knew it all, suggested that we fly in a loose formation all the way back to Sacramento. Right after departure, I realized this was a dumb idea, since you can't distinguish other airplanes against city lights, or easily tell how far away the other plane is. So I told ATC I was breaking off from the flight and I took a turn toward the ocean. I planned to fly up the coast a ways. I was vectored out over the ocean a mile or so, but since I was at about 8,000 feet that was OK. But I soon lost all visual reference. It was a real strange feeling, and I had to use the gauges and look back at the city lights for a reference. If you don't fly at night, this probably wouldn't happen, but if you do, it's nice to at least have a turn coordinator. I've often wondered what it would be like to be flying along at night, and suddenly have a major power outage in the area. The only thing left would be car lights! ---------------------------------------------------------------- Steve Dold ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) http://home.pacbell.net/sdold/ Say NO to useless over-quoting ----------------------------------------------------------------
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