Night illusions
Runway width and slope illusions, the black-hole approach, and the inner-ear illusions that follow a pilot into the traffic pattern.
12 min read · Night flying
After this lesson you can
- Predict whether a runway-width or slope illusion will produce a high or low approach.
- Describe the black-hole (featureless terrain) approach and the one instrument-based defense against it.
- Distinguish autokinesis, false horizon, and the vestibular illusions (the leans, Coriolis illusion, graveyard spiral, somatogravic illusion).
- Apply the FAA's illusion-prevention checklist to an unfamiliar night approach.
Night illusions are not lapses of attention -- they are the brain doing exactly what it always does, applying rules that work in daylight to a scene that no longer supports them. A runway that looks narrower than usual, a stretch of featureless dark terrain, a single light held in view too long: each one produces a specific, predictable, wrong conclusion, and the brain does not flag the error.
None of these illusions can be argued away by willpower. The only defense that works is deciding in advance which source of information -- the instrument, not the sensation -- gets believed when the two disagree, and flying approaches that do not depend on the sensation being right.
The rest of this lesson
- 1.Runway width and slope illusions
- 2.The black hole approach
- 3.Weather and light illusions
- 4.Ground lighting illusions
- 5.Illusions from the inner ear
- 6.Autokinesis and other single-light illusions
- 7.What actually protects you
These 7 sections, their figures, the checks along the way and the end-of-lesson quiz come with the CPL track. Paid once, yours for good.
Key terms
Try to recall each definition before turning the card.