Black-Hole Approach

For the last few years, my home airport has been a private, paved and lighted strip in a rural area. The pilot-controlled lighting is non-standard, however. For one, the systems intensity is relatively weak. For another, there seem to be fewer runway lights than at most other airports Ive used. And the light fixtures themselves seem located farther from the pavement than Im accustomed. Often, there are few other ground lights in the area to help provide perspective at night. The runway does not have a rotating beacon, only a dimly lit windsock that may or may not tell the truth. There are few obstructions in the area above a couple of hundred feet, although theres a tall tower about five miles north.

Joseph E. (Jeb) Burnside

Thursday, March 22, 2018 at 12:00 AM ET

Verified

The paint scheme on the DA50 RG was created from a design competition—the winning design by Kirk Smith. Courtesy Diamond Aircraft

Key Takeaways:

The article highlights the significant dangers of "black-hole approaches" during night landings, where non-standard or insufficient lighting and lack of peripheral ground illumination can create optical illusions, leading pilots to misjudge altitude and descend prematurely.
A fatal accident involving a Beech 65-A90-1 at Slidell Municipal Airport exemplified these dangers, with an experienced crew crashing into power lines due to an unstable approach in black-hole conditions.
The NTSB determined contributing factors included pilot complacency due to airport familiarity, inadequate crew monitoring, and critically, the failure to utilize the available Visual Glidepath Indicator (PAPI), which is designed to counter premature descents in such environments.

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For the last few years, my home airport has been a private, paved and lighted strip in a rural area. The pilot-controlled lighting is non-standard, however. For one, the system’s intensity is relatively weak. For another, there seem to be fewer runway lights than at most other airports I’ve used. And the light fixtures themselves seem located farther from the pavement than I’m accustomed. Often, there are few other ground lights in the area to help provide perspective at night. The runway does not have a rotating beacon, only a dimly lit windsock that may or may not tell the truth. There are few obstructions in the area above a couple of hundred feet, although there’s a tall tower about five miles north.

I’ve flown in there at night several times and I’ll do it again several more times. But I don’t like it. The combination of dim, non-standard lighting and the lack of nearby ground illumination—what the NTSB calls cultural lighting—pretty much defines the so-called black-hole approach, the kind where depth perception suffers from lack of detail, especially when there are few peripheral details. The human eye just isn’t all that good at night. More light and more lighted objects to help with depth perception are better.