Originally Posted by
Hot and Hi
Sure Robbie, all agreed. But I have a technical question. Not a moral one.
The thesis is that synthetic vision would allow to fly (at reasonable and safe heights above ground, and as far as spatial orientation and terrain clearance are concerned) in IMC as if your were in VMC, even without recourse to those technical and highly perishable skills required to integrate the information from various steam gauges into a mental picture about your position in space and in relation to the ground.
And the justification for this claim is that a synthetic vision screen large enough would be undistinguishable from the picture presented through the windscreen, the latter we all know allows regular VFR pilots to keep the blue side up by simply using external visual cues.
This is a priori a thought experiment, not a moral imperative.
Well, plenty of pilots these days have an artificial horizon bigger than my first tv, yet still seem to fly perfectly capable aircraft into the ground when they can no longer see out the window.
Originally Posted by
Nubian
Well, I think we should not use your experience as a guide to how common Rad-Alts are. If you would have flown other helicopters than the Robinsons, I am sure you would have seen one or two.
You can try flying in remote areas in the winter, extended over water or in low light conditions and you will appreciate the help you get from this fancy tool..
As for your last statement, I suggest you sign up for a basic course in SMS and Risk management, so as you say: **** will always just happen… maybe not happen after all…
This accident, didn´t just happen….
You're right, I'm not experienced enough to crash a helicopter big and new enough to have a rad-alt.
I have however, gone to several seminars on IIMC (including "Land and Live") over the years, read numerous accident reports involving night and bad weather, and attended a Factory Safety Course many times,...yet still almost killed myself going IIMC while scudd-running on a ferry flight.
So yeah,...**** does happen!