On Fri, 15 Dec 2006 09:39:21 -0500, Jose
wrote:

Unless you are close enough to suitable landing terrain and know where
it is located there is little use in flying higher as you can't see
where you are going to land any way, but that depends on the terrain,
visibility, and availability of nearby airports.

That depends on how low you fly during the day, doesn't it? During
the day it's generally safe to fly below the tops of nearby terrain
since you can see it. At night this is somewhat less bright.

Depends on where you are flying.

Around here you'd need a fair amount of gas just to get where you
could safely find a spot where you could fly below the tops of
surrounding terrain. Even flying *very* low over sparsely populated
areas I'd need to go about 60 miles to get that low without worrying
about hitting telephone lines and cell phone towers.

Also, additional altitude gives more time to troubleshoot and solve a
problem with the fan. It may take longer at night just because of the
visibility issues.

The only complete engine failure I've had was close to the ground as
in between 30 and 50 feet. I did the trouble shooting without ever
looking at the switches and valves. It didn't restart any way.
It had a blown diaphragm in the fuel distribution spider on top of the
engine.



Jose
Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com