Cockpit window Sun Shade
Join Date: Dec 1999
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Given that almost all scheduled airline ops operate on IFR flightplans which assume flight in permanent IMC how can a visual lookout be mandatory? Sure you'd use it where you can, but in IMC/IFR it cannot, ipso facto, be mandatory.
I've recently had an FO react in a most inappropriate manner due to a percieved conflict with co-ordinated IFR traffic that would have taken the controller very much by surprise had it continued. Sometimes acting on what you see by looking out of the window can be quite counterproductive.
Personally calls like "Bigbird xxx maintain heading due crossing traffic 10 o'clock same level call clear of traffic" make me cringe. How can we assume that the traffic we think we've identified is the one he intended? We cannot. Thus taking the authority for avoidance based on our own unverifiable visual criteria is surely a nonsense in the controlled IFR environment? Dosen't this negate the entire point of IFR altogether?
My answer to the above is invariably "not visual", as per our flight plan.
Lookout in IMC/IFR? How?
Incoming!!!
I've recently had an FO react in a most inappropriate manner due to a percieved conflict with co-ordinated IFR traffic that would have taken the controller very much by surprise had it continued. Sometimes acting on what you see by looking out of the window can be quite counterproductive.
Personally calls like "Bigbird xxx maintain heading due crossing traffic 10 o'clock same level call clear of traffic" make me cringe. How can we assume that the traffic we think we've identified is the one he intended? We cannot. Thus taking the authority for avoidance based on our own unverifiable visual criteria is surely a nonsense in the controlled IFR environment? Dosen't this negate the entire point of IFR altogether?
My answer to the above is invariably "not visual", as per our flight plan.
Lookout in IMC/IFR? How?
Incoming!!!
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TYRO
Yes, but some questions were raised about damaging windows and I meant to add a comment. These (automotive type) reflective blinds are commercially available to fit aircraft windows. They have not done any perminant damage to my knowledge but have resulted in more false window heat failures at the gate (usually cleared up with a bottle of cold water).
I guess the question is, if you had these blinds at your disposal in flight would you be inclined to use them?
I guess the question is, if you had these blinds at your disposal in flight would you be inclined to use them?
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Personally calls like "Bigbird xxx maintain heading due crossing traffic 10 o'clock same level call clear of traffic" make me cringe. How can we assume that the traffic we think we've identified is the one he intended? We cannot. Thus taking the authority for avoidance based on our own unverifiable visual criteria is surely a nonsense in the controlled IFR environment? Dosen't this negate the entire point of IFR altogether?
My answer to the above is invariably "not visual", as per our flight plan.
Lookout in IMC/IFR? How?
Incoming!!!
My answer to the above is invariably "not visual", as per our flight plan.
Lookout in IMC/IFR? How?
Incoming!!!
But if you prefer not to help and give this information this is of course your prerogative. Of course you can always call him 5 mins later with "Bigbird xxx, we're still maintaining flxxx", when he forgotten all about your request for another level.
Besides from that IFR flightplan does not imply that you are IMC or VMC. As long as you are VMC, lookout is required. Procedures for lost com is also different depending IMC or VMC. Hence you can't say that your are IMC because you filed and IFR flightplan.
Last but not least, Class E airspace may contain uncontrolled VFR traffic. A good lookout + reduced speed may be very advisable.
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Personally I have always considered that keeping as good a lookout as conditions permit is basic good airmanship. Reducing the sun's glare on your face improves your ability to maintain that lookout.
Mr Boeing is very good at providing sun shades which fail to fit tight up to the edge of the windscreen and the sun has an amazing knack of positioning itself so as to shine through the resulting gap.
My solution has been to buy a strip of green plastic intended to be used along the top of a car windscreen. Cut into 30cm lengths and used with three thicknesses it has light blocking qualities similar to that of the Boeing shades. The plastic is self clinging both to itself and to glass. When not in use it fits neatly in my briefcase.
(Lettering such as WAYNE or TRACY is optional.)
Mr Boeing is very good at providing sun shades which fail to fit tight up to the edge of the windscreen and the sun has an amazing knack of positioning itself so as to shine through the resulting gap.
My solution has been to buy a strip of green plastic intended to be used along the top of a car windscreen. Cut into 30cm lengths and used with three thicknesses it has light blocking qualities similar to that of the Boeing shades. The plastic is self clinging both to itself and to glass. When not in use it fits neatly in my briefcase.
(Lettering such as WAYNE or TRACY is optional.)
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They don't block ALL UV light, and they don't block visible light. Visible light energy heats things up and bleaches them. All about 'free radicals'... and I'm not referring to heavily militant union members :-)
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