So, you take off from the base with the bar alt reading zero, after all it has been said in that area "AGL is more or less MSL".
You're flying around the area, on the way back to base for example, and both engines go quiet ... what is the elevation of the ground below you? 49 feet, 62 feet, or perhaps higher. At what bar alt height would you begin the flare?
The mention of nitesun and rotating landing lights is totally irrelevant as you can bet your bottom dollar that the high load nitesun will be pointing backwards, will take three attempts to spark up from the controller in the back operated by the rear crew member and the rotating landing lamp will be in the wrong place ... and you probably aren't going to start moving that around.
The fixed landing lamp will be pointing in its usual place, which will be handy, however just as it begins to give a bit of ground definition, around the point at which you begin the flare, the ground goes dark again. The next time you see the illuminated ground is when you are cushioning on.
The rad alt will give you a pretty accurate height above the ground/ water/ trees/ rooftops on which to base your plan of action.
Last edited by SilsoeSid; 10th Mar 2016 at 23:04.