I had a solo cross country when I did my night rating in the UK – Biggin Hill to Southend and back.
Here is another report on an unusual 172 flight, Brussels to Bermuda.
http://www.royalgazette.com/article/20150616/ISLAND03/150619819
A_A I never lifted the night restriction on my FI so my impression is that EASA only requires three solo circuits. There is some modest NAV dual, but nothing too taxing.
RobertL18C wrote:
The Canucks are quite good on their night rating and back in the day you needed a solo cross country for the rating (now that is an interesting risk assessment for your FI)
Hm. I had to do a solo cross country when I took the night rating. You mean that it’s not necessary for an EASA night rating? (I haven’t checked the regs.)
For a child of the magenta line there might not be much point in a cross country for the night rating.
The Canucks are quite good on their night rating and back in the day you needed a solo cross country for the rating (now that is an interesting risk assessment for your FI), or possibly for night hire, can’t recall as forty years ago. A few of their airports have lights on the surrounding terrain and you needed to count the lights before descending below MSA – admittedly more relevant for IFR (am thinking of old NDB approaches in the Okanagan valley in BC).
Sad accident and makes the blog more poignant. The photography was excellent especially for the leg along the u shaped valley to Broughton Island, now Qikiqtarjuaq Airport (YVM).
Gosh I missed that… That is a really avoidable mistake, too. But then very few people will say I am the “live and let live” risk-taker type, and most people admire adventurers/achievers even if they do sometimes take big risks with others’ lives.
Spoiler Alert!
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If you plan to read the original article, then don’t read this until you’ve finished!
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There is an article about the crash on his website. This is the link.
He was descending at night for arrival into the airport. But in his planning the night before, he failed to notice the high ground around his destination and crashed into a mountain. He was badly injured with life long consequences, and one of his passengers died. A sad end to a great trip.
I gathered he may have had an accident on his last leg, but was not able to find out what happened. Finding the weather/ATC station at nightfall in the middle of the Quebec wilderness without any radio navigation using ded reckoning was quite heroic. Without roads or rivers some of the navigation would have been pure ded reckoning, I doubt the half mill charts mapped accurately the millions of small lakes in the area.
I don’t think Peter was asking the question, just repeating the question asked by the author.
I think the writer, by asking that question, was trying to highlight their achievement in navigating that trip by map reading skills. While I do find that an amazing achievement, I also think it’s somewhat ironic, given how the story ends. A modern GPS with relative terrain mode, could have lead to a very different outcome!
Whenever I find myself in deteriorating visibility, moving off my planned route, relative terrain is the first thing that gets turned on!
dublinpilot glad you enjoyed it.
To Peter’s question, he seems to have been a very practical owner with only a COM and a LORAN (the RNAV of the day).
http://www.texasairsalvage.com/main_view.php?editid1=33607
…although it didn’t work in the far north, will need to google translate
