NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Pilot avoids collision with Venus
From: Lu Abel
Date: 2012 Apr 18, 10:13 -0700
From: Lu Abel
Date: 2012 Apr 18, 10:13 -0700
Let's not forget that this was a commercial flight with TWO pilots aboard (technically, pilot and co-pilot, but both are fully qualified to fly the aircraft). So where was the other pilot when this one woke up "groggy and disoriented?"
With respect, Geoffrey, your scenario of a pilot on a "walk about" doesn't work. One of the crew can leave the cockpit, but one must always remain in the cockpit.
So I'm still left with the question of where the fully awake pilot was and what he was doing when this incident took place.
From: Geoffrey Kolbe <geoffreykolbe@compuserve.com>
To: NavList@fer3.com
Sent: Tuesday, April 17, 2012 11:20 PM
Subject: [NavList] Re: Pilot avoids collision with Venus
At 06:32 18/04/2012, Bill B wrote:
> I do not know if cel nav is a requirement for a commercial pilots license these days, but I would think a fundamental knowledge of the position of heavenly bodies might come in handy for the pilot of any craft.
Hmm. There is a lot of hype about this, mainly centred on a "disoriented and groggy" pilot who has just woken up, making a call about what looked like the lights of an oncoming plane, and considered that there was no time to make further checks about what else it might be before taking avoiding action.
Let us change the scenario a bit. Let us suppose the plane had been on autopilot and the human pilot had been on a walk-about amongst the passengers (as used to happen once upon a time) and came back into the cockpit to see a bright light dead ahead. Now, we have a pilot who is awake and alert, being confronted with what he thinks is a plane on collision course within seconds of impact. What is he to do...?
I would be interested to hear what Gary would think about this one.
Geoffrey