Hi folks,
read the thread with interest.
5 hrs training seems to littlte for me.
Having done more than 600 hrs on NVG in the last few years I experienced, that all scary moments in the last years were with NVG on.....
(and we operate with a two pilot plus FLIR-operator crew- NVG certified helos)
Doing real missions with live on stack youŽre surely go closer to the limits - and at night with NVG they are not always that clear to determine.
As long as the wheather is good, there are only a few trapdoors which can get you.
(i.e. a car with coming up a hill and blinding you with the frontlights)
Wheater bad or getting bad i.e. due to cooling and upcoming mist or just low cloud and rain in the valleys, can make you whish to be on the ground instead of the air....
Mistwetter - fotocommunity.de
Photo was taken before take off after an outsidelanding such a night. You might see, where the clouds were on take off - at the time of the landing, they were lower.
And winter is about to come - snow and NVG a very special adventure itself....
Single Pilot NVG operations is only an accident to be waited for cause your eyes need time to focus between looking inside for instruments - and outside again through NVG.
In case of any emergency youŽll get problems finding switches and fuses with the NVG on, handling the emergency while still have to fly the helo.
Imagine i.e. a birdstrike - yes, there are also birds around flying at night!
In all these cases, a second guy with NVG in the front and with very good aircraft knowledge - best a pilot - could save your butt.
I wouldnŽt like to fly tactical single pilot cause I have experienced the value of a second pilot!
Greetings Flying Bull