On Sun, 13 Jan 2008 09:05:13 -0700, "Bill Daniels"
bildan@comcast-dot-net wrote:

To tie Fred's comments about false horizons to the thread on mountain
flying, think about the situation when you descend into a mountain valley.
As you drop below the ridge line, you lose a useful horizon reference. If
you keep the nose on the jagged line between ridge top and sky, your nose
will get higher and higher as you continue the decent - you have to point
the nose at some indeterminate point on the sides of the valley to maintain
the desired airspeed and prevent a stall.

This is a subtitle trap that snares many 'flatland' pilots on their first
mountain trip - usually in an overloaded Cessna 172 right after takeoff.
These pilots have learned to use the familiar, reliable horizon line at
their home airports. It's always there and they have always relied heavily
on it. Take it away, and their pilot skills evaporate.

It's quite possible to fly pitch attitude with reference to the airspeed
indicator but that's a instrument rated pilot "partial panel" trick and
most pilots either aren't trained to do it or aren't good at it.

An AOA indicator solves the problem nicely.


Long ago in my Southern Cal power-flying days, I often flew coworkers
over to Catalina for the $100 buffalo burger. That strip was built by
cutting the tops off two hills and putting the rocks in between --
basically a giant carrier deck, with steep dropoffs all around.

You had to fly your pattern in a very left-hemisphere, by the numbers,
way or you would invariably get high. You could actually get the
impression you were _below_ the runway, even though you were looking
at pavement, and that feeling would not go away until you were about
200 feet on final.

There almost always seemed to be a Cessna sitting off to the side with
its nose gear folded up...

rj