Comment by zovirl
8 hours ago
Can you speak more on why glider pilots need night vision googles to fly at night but single-engine pilots don’t? Is it the risk of landing out? Or are they flying closer to the terrain?
8 hours ago
Can you speak more on why glider pilots need night vision googles to fly at night but single-engine pilots don’t? Is it the risk of landing out? Or are they flying closer to the terrain?
My understanding is that (1) there is, as you say, a very nonzero risk of landing in a field and good visibility of what is _in_ that field is critical; (2) when riding thermals it is traditionally the case that many gliders soar in close proximity close to the core rising air mass, circling at quite a high bank angle – and collisions need to be avoided (many glider pilots wear parachutes for that reason…) and having visual references, particularly to mountains, really helps; and finally (3) it is common to be flying visually as one typically staircases in an altitude profile, as seen here, and go in and out of controlled airsapce (or deliberately avoid bumping into it, as I have done at 10 kft in UK airspace a long time ago).
In contrast, general aviation aircraft:
a) Have bright lights b) Will fly in a straight line at a well defined altitude, meaning that vertical separation is sufficient to deconflict aircraft c) Do not typically land in fields and do instead land on runways which often _also_ have bright lights.
Not the OP, but I'd say both are yes. You will be flying in close proximity to mountains, no way you can do this without actually seeing the mountain.