Letters: Ode to night currency

I fly often from the Kendall-Tamiami Airport (TMB) in southern Florida and looking down, generally what I see are water (ocean, lakes, canals), beaches (with multitudes of relaxing tourists), large built-up areas, vast marshes (the Everglades, populated by multitudes of hungry alligators), and busy roads. I have pondered this question of what might be the best potential emergency landing choice many times and the possible use of roads has caused me much concern. While they do offer frequent long, straight sections, they also are used by hordes of drivers, many of whom drive large vehicles way too fast, seemingly never look around them, and often have no insurance.

So, even if I were capable of performing a safe emergency landing on such a road, my concern then would be the likelihood of being struck by a speeding vehicle. Perhaps ditching in a canal might be a wiser choice?

Huw S. Kruger Gray
Miami, Florida

Greg Brown responds:

You raise a great point in that what constitutes a good emergency piloting decision in one situation might be a bad one under other circumstances.

Although pilots safely accomplish freeway landings relatively frequently around the country, I fully agree with your assessment of the associated risks and dangers. In many if not most cases, there are safer landing options to consider first. 

This story took place on a moonless night at my home airport, in a remote, wooded, mountainous area. Short of landing on the freeway, there is no night-identifiable terrain, nor are there lighted areas except for the town itself. The rest of the area is pitch-black on a moonless night, so the only alternative would be landing blind into trees or hills. So in my scenario, the freeway is frankly the only night landing option short of getting back to the airport. As a local, I also have a good idea of where bridges and wires are located on the interstate, and there’s relatively little traffic on a weekday evening. But I don’t care to ever try it unless my life depended on it.

These many qualifiers are unique to my situation, location, and even phase of the moon. I suspect you’ll agree that one of the great challenges of piloting is that there are few, if any, “one-size-fits-all” emergency procedures to guide us in decision making. 

Erratum

I really enjoy Flight Training magazine and the many illustrations and articles. I must, however, point out an error in the article “Flights that Changed the World” (October 2016 Flight Training). The battle of Midway was not the first engagement of ships that did not sight or fire on one another or of aircraft carriers. That occurred during the battle of the Coral Sea.

John Wolf
Bethel, Pennsylvania

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