Night VFR following highways

Is it a bad idea to fly VFR at night and navigate by following highways? At
night outside large cities, there doesn't seem to be much else that's visible.
It seems to me that if you can clearly see the highway, it can guide you and
you can get a good idea of where you are with respect to terrain, so it should
work. Are there hidden dangers in this? Do night VFR pilots ever/often
navigate by following highways? What other forms of visual navigation are
usable at night?

Mxsmanic wrote:
Is it a bad idea to fly VFR at night and navigate by following highways? At
night outside large cities, there doesn't seem to be much else that's visible.
It seems to me that if you can clearly see the highway, it can guide you and
you can get a good idea of where you are with respect to terrain, so it should
work. Are there hidden dangers in this? Do night VFR pilots ever/often
navigate by following highways? What other forms of visual navigation are
usable at night?

Why would you want to when VORs ang GPSs are available? However, on a
clear night you can see the far away town lights. You just need to be
sure that the lights you see are the town you want. I'll stay with my
GPS for navigation.

--

Regards, Ross
C-172F 180HP
KSWI

Ross writes:

Why would you want to when VORs ang GPSs are available?

Mainly just for practice, in case the radio navigation fails or something.

However, on a
clear night you can see the far away town lights. You just need to be
sure that the lights you see are the town you want. I'll stay with my
GPS for navigation.

What if the GPS stops working?

Mxsmanic wrote in
:

Ross writes:

Why would you want to when VORs ang GPSs are available?

Mainly just for practice, in case the radio navigation fails or
something.

Why, you don't fly.
Or is your latest terorist target a night target?


Bertie

Ross wrote in
:

Mxsmanic wrote:
Is it a bad idea to fly VFR at night and navigate by following
highways? At night outside large cities, there doesn't seem to be
much else that's visible. It seems to me that if you can clearly see
the highway, it can guide you and you can get a good idea of where
you are with respect to terrain, so it should work. Are there hidden
dangers in this? Do night VFR pilots ever/often navigate by
following highways? What other forms of visual navigation are usable
at night?

Why would you want to when VORs ang GPSs are available?

If you're flying a no radio airplane?


Bertie

Bertie the Bunyip wrote:
Ross wrote in
:


Mxsmanic wrote:

Is it a bad idea to fly VFR at night and navigate by following
highways? At night outside large cities, there doesn't seem to be
much else that's visible. It seems to me that if you can clearly see
the highway, it can guide you and you can get a good idea of where
you are with respect to terrain, so it should work. Are there hidden
dangers in this? Do night VFR pilots ever/often navigate by
following highways? What other forms of visual navigation are usable
at night?

Why would you want to when VORs ang GPSs are available?


If you're flying a no radio airplane?


Bertie

Then I guess I would follow roads, but might buy a handheld GPS if I was
going to do a lot of this.

--

Regards, Ross
C-172F 180HP
KSWI

Mxsmanic wrote:
Is it a bad idea to fly VFR at night and navigate by following highways?

My father-in-law (ANG helicopter crewman) takes "IFR" to mean "I Follow
Roads " (or rivers)

At night outside large cities, there doesn't seem to be much else that's
visible.
It seems to me that if you can clearly see the highway, it can guide you
and
you can get a good idea of where you are with respect to terrain, so it
should
work.

Sure. For example, Interstate 5 runs from Canada to Mexico, and the stretch
through most of Oregon looks like somebody drew a straight line with a
pencil across the landscape. If you were flying from Portland (possible
Seattle) to Eugene, Medford, Sacramento, etc, day or note you could follow
the freeway the entire route.

You'd still use your VFR navigation aids and checkpoints to make sure know
how far you are enroute, and also to avoid controlled airspace, etc, but
having that road, railroad, river makes for a more-enjoyable flight.

-c

gatt wrote:
Sure. For example, Interstate 5 runs from Canada to Mexico, and the stretch
through most of Oregon looks like somebody drew a straight line with a
pencil across the landscape. If you were flying from Portland (possible
Seattle) to Eugene, Medford, Sacramento, etc, day or note you could follow
the freeway the entire route.

I followed a highway up to Alaska. In daylight,however.

gatt writes:

My father-in-law (ANG helicopter crewman) takes "IFR" to mean "I Follow
Roads " (or rivers)

There is a sobering story right along those lines at

http://www.aopa.org/pilot/never_again/2008/na0801.html

I find it interesting that the author says this VFR flight scared him more
than any of his combat missions in Vietnam.

Sure. For example, Interstate 5 runs from Canada to Mexico, and the stretch
through most of Oregon looks like somebody drew a straight line with a
pencil across the landscape. If you were flying from Portland (possible
Seattle) to Eugene, Medford, Sacramento, etc, day or note you could follow
the freeway the entire route.

You'd still use your VFR navigation aids and checkpoints to make sure know
how far you are enroute, and also to avoid controlled airspace, etc, but
having that road, railroad, river makes for a more-enjoyable flight.

Good. I wanted to make sure I'm not missing some risk or danger to following
highways. From the article above I learned that things like wires and cables
are a real risk if you're very close to the highway, but only a helicopter
would be that low.

Mxsmanic wrote in
:

gatt writes:

My father-in-law (ANG helicopter crewman) takes "IFR" to mean "I
Follow Roads " (or rivers)

There is a sobering story right along those lines at

http://www.aopa.org/pilot/never_again/2008/na0801.html

I find it interesting that the author says this VFR flight scared him
more than any of his combat missions in Vietnam.

Sure. For example, Interstate 5 runs from Canada to Mexico, and the
stretch through most of Oregon looks like somebody drew a straight
line with a pencil across the landscape. If you were flying from
Portland (possible Seattle) to Eugene, Medford, Sacramento, etc, day
or note you could follow the freeway the entire route.

You'd still use your VFR navigation aids and checkpoints to make sure
know how far you are enroute, and also to avoid controlled airspace,
etc, but having that road, railroad, river makes for a more-enjoyable
flight.

Good. I wanted to make sure I'm not missing some risk or danger to
following highways. From the article above I learned that things like
wires and cables are a real risk if you're very close to the highway,
but only a helicopter would be that low.


Wow, hittign a virtual wire in a virtual airplane could really ruin your
day if you were insane!


Bertie