Maybe you’ve read Chapter 17 of the Pilot’s Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge and Chapter 11 of the Airplane Flying Handbook, learning about the dangers of spatial disorientation and runway illusions caused by the reduction of visual cues. Most of us read along the way, too, about the black hole approach, where a lack of visual cues on the ground make it challenging for the pilot to find the runway and fly a stable approach. Oddly enough, the other side of the black hole approach—the black hole departure—that can make takeoffs challenging and sometimes downright deadly does not receive the same amount of attention.

Perhaps it’s time that it did.

Accident at KVNC

On April 5, a commercial pilot flying a Piper Cherokee Lance took off from Venice Municipal Airport (KVNC) in Florida, destined for Albert Whitted Airport (KSPG) in St. Petersburg under a full moon. The airport sports two runways, 13/31 and 5/23. Noise-sensitive communities surround the airport, and the recommendation is that pilots use Runway 23 at night and follow a noise abatement procedure that has them maintain runway heading and climb to 1,000 feet msl at best rate of climb (VY) before heading on their way. The airport is located on the west coast of Florida, and Runway 23 puts the aircraft over the Gulf of Mexico.

The weather at the time of the flight was reported as 10 miles visibility and clear. However, security camera footage of the takeoff showed there was no discernible horizon over the dark waters of the Gulf.

According to the data track provided by the FAA, the aircraft reached an altitude of approximately 300 feet and a ground speed of about 103 knots then began a turn to the right and entered a descent. The aircraft hit the water at 136 knots and a vertical descent rate of approximately 3,000 fpm, killing the pilot and all three passengers.

While it will take several months for the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) to determine the probable cause of the accident, the black hole nature of the departure environment is already under review.

“This accident really drove home how insidious VFR night flight can be,” said the late Richard McSpadden, former Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) senior vice president and executive director of its Air Safety Institute (ASI).

Recently, the ASI took an in-depth look at this accident.

“The departure is more of a risk than the approach is, because on the approach the pilot is already on instruments,” said McSpadden in October 2023, explaining that during black hole approaches the pilot is carefully watching the airspeed indicator, heading indicator, attitude indicator, and altimeter to maintain situational awareness. “On departure, the pilot may not be expecting to be on instruments, then the darkness comes at them rather quickly—and they are not ready to transition.”

McSpadden flew the Runway 23 departure at KVNC at night to have a better understanding of the challenge. “When you take off, the coastline is at an angle,” he said. “The way the coastline falls away, you are truly completely dark really quickly, as you are over the water.”

Many pilots don’t recognize the challenge of the black hole departure, according to David St. George, the exec-utive director of the Society of Aviation and Flight Educators, a 21,000-hour charter pilot, and a designated pilot examiner. “Taking off into a black hole (dark night) is like flying into the belly of a whale—no references,” St. George said. One of the scenarios he uses for check rides is having the applicant plan a night flight that includes a black hole departure, such as out of Tampa Executive Airport (KVDF) in Florida. “First, to see if they plan a direct flight over water,” St. George said, “second, to see if they detect the hazards of departure. The airman certification standards are all about risk management.”

Over-water departures aren’t the only challenging ones, said St. George, adding that departures over dark and featureless mountainous terrain also pose challenges. McSpadden suggested that instructors prepare learners for these situations by teaching them to use the instruments during night flight because “the lack of horizon can be disorientating, and if it happens at low altitude, you are in serious trouble because the surprise factor limits reaction time.” He believed pilots should practice black hole departures in an aviation training device so they understand how to use the instruments to maintain aircraft control.

Taking McSpadden’s advice, I decided to give it a try. Using the NTSB preliminary report as a guide, I re-created the accident at KVNC in a Redbird FMX advanced aviation training device, right down to the time, date, and weather. I used a large, black tarp to block out exterior light.

McSpadden was correct—when the aircraft passes over the shoreline and the lights fall away, it is disorienting, and you need to get on the gauges quickly, just as you do for an IFR departure.

Practice Going on the Gauges

Spatial disorientation is defined as the lack of orientation with regard to the position, attitude, or movement of the airplane in space. Pilots are prone to spatial disorientation if they rely on their vestibular system (the organs in the inner ear), the somatosensory system (also known as the “seat-of-the-pants” sensation), and visual system without identifying a horizon.

In short, your body becomes confused between acceleration forces that result from gravity and maneuvering the aircraft. This can, and often does, lead to spatial disorientation. You may feel like the airplane is in straight-and-level flight when actually it is nose-high attitude and turning to the left.

Just as pilots train to identify and recover from unusual attitudes, it can behoove you to practice experiencing spatial disorientation and flying the aircraft by instruments. Do this with the help of an instructor and at appropriate altitude. You could put on a view-limiting device then close your eyes and tilt your head forward while the instructor puts the aircraft through climbs, turns, and descents to ensure you’re appropriately disoriented. Then the instructor can have you attempt to hold the aircraft on an assigned heading while climbing at V_Y. An exercise like this demonstrates how the body can lie to you, and it gives you confidence in using the instruments.

• READ MORE: Flying at Night: What You Need to Know

Safely in the Black Hole

There are a handful of tips you can follow to help mitigate risk when you face a potential black hole departure, though these practices and procedures help any takeoff profile. First, before you taxi onto the runway, make sure the altimeter is set to the field elevation.

In your regular flying, practice V_X and V_Y climbs in day VFR conditions, noting the pitch angles on the attitude indicator for reference at night.

Study the sectional, airport guide, and Google Earth images of the area around the airport before you take off for better situational awareness. You can also use tools in apps like ForeFlight and Garmin Pilot to visualize terrain and obstacles in unfamiliar areas. Note the elevation of obstacles near the airport and determine what altitude the aircraft will have to be at to safely pass over them.

This last tip was impressed upon me as a CFI candidate taking off from Norm Grier Field (S36), a nontowered airport in Kent, Washington. The runway, 15/33, measures 3,288 feet by 40 feet with low intensity runway lights. The airport is surrounded by 30- to 40-foot trees, and on the north and south ends there are power lines that run perpendicular to the runway.

“You need to be at 650 feet to clear the wires,” my CFI told me.

He was correct.

Getting Out of the Hole

• Check that the altimeter is set to field elevation before takeoff.
• Practice climbs at V_x and V_y in day VFR conditions.
• Study the lay of the land via the sectional, Google Earth, ForeFlight terrain awareness, or other apps.
• Note the elevation of obstacles and high-terrain points in the departure path—and all
  quadrants in case of an ATC vector or traffic avoidance course change.
• If you have access to a desktop flight sim or AATD, set up a black hole departure at one of the airports noted (KVNC, KSPG, or KVDF) and experience the process.

This feature first appeared in the October 2023/Issue 942 of FLYING’s print edition.

The post Respect the Darkness of the Black Hole Departure appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Back at my home airport in Daytona Beach, Florida (KDAB), I’d mastered all the visual navigation aids that had come to serve as cues for my flying. For example, to fly the RNAV Runway 16 approach at that airport, a local hospital positioned 5 miles north of the airport was my signal to establish a steady, 500 fpm descent with 10 degrees of flaps—which would take you right in. If you wanted to circle-to-land on Runway 7L, here’s what you’d do: You only had to wait until you were adjacent to the Daytona International Speedway, at which point you could make a turn left and fly towards I-95 south until the nose of your airplane touched the road. With Daytona’s 10,500-foot primary runway now on your left—provided that you leveled off well at your circling altitude—you’d gradually bring the power almost to idle, confirm that your gear and final flaps were down, and you’d be right on the numbers. With the visual cues guiding me along the way, my rehearsal worked every time, whether day or night. Whenever I had to teach that sequence to students, I was like a drill sergeant training recruits how to march in step.

Now, imagine doing that circle-to-land procedure at another airport and—compounding the level of complexity—doing it at night. You might feel the urge to look for similar cues, but it is unlikely you’d get the same results since very few airports are built alike. So, I used to find myself approaching a new airport in the air while under visual flight rules, and instead of being able to focus on the approach phase, I’d end up behind the airplane, figuring out where I was. And it was easy to lose my way if the airport had multiple runways and air traffic controllers issued instructions that required me to report from a particular reference point to be configured for the traffic pattern. Plus, pilots know all too well that the simplified rendering on sectionals and airport diagrams by themselves never completely do the job of allowing you to get up to speed ahead of time.

I know I am not alone here. As an instructor, I’ve seen students at all levels display the same patterns of confusion, regardless of experience. If you’ve recently purchased a new or new-to-you airplane and have set off to explore the world, it will only be a matter of time before you run into this problem. How can you overcome this? Here are some best practices I’ve discovered that quickly orient me to new surroundings and help me get configured for landing in a timely manner.

The rise in satellite imagery available on many commercial products allows you to see photo-quality images of the world as it appears in real life. This tip I discovered when I had to fly into a private airport for a check ride and needed to figure out what visual cues I would use for my traffic pattern. Using Google Earth, I could set up the point of view as if I was at a reasonable altitude and looking forward. Using this perspective, you can see the world as you’d see it from an airplane. I could follow the path I’d expect to fly and learn the surroundings.

To apply this, I suggest positioning yourself 20 nm away from the airport and role-playing what ATC might assign you for headings and altitudes during normal operations. Determine how you would join the pattern for various runways. Think about what you’d need to do if the pattern was full and you needed to turn around without causing a problem for someone in trail. More importantly, figure out where the highest obstacles are. Compare it with your sectional to watch for nearby airspace and establish visual cues to keep you from violating any that you’re not cleared to enter. Consider what you’d do in low-visibility conditions, or at night. 

In hindsight, I was surprised it took me so long to use this, but it has proven to be a helpful idea for preflight planning. By talking about how the airplane should be reasonably configured as you fly along and using visual markers as guiding points, you can ensure that by the time you actually make the trip, you know what to expect. It sure beats what I’ve seen other CFIs try to do, e.g.: holding up an airport diagram and spinning it north to figure out where they are. Whenever I’ve shared this Google Earth tip with new students, I’ve seen their eyes light up as they know they now have a workload-relieving tool that improves decision-making and situational awareness. And here’s another tool: You can use ForeFlight’s 3D View after selecting an airport to get a similar bird’s-eye view of your approach to any airport in their database. Pretty slick.

Once you get on the ground, you also need to have a plan. In the past, I’ve let my guard down—just being happy to have safely landed—only to be bombarded with taxi instructions from controllers that sound like a foreign language. Did they say cross this runway and then hold short of the next taxiway, or was it the other way around? Familiarize yourself with the airport diagram beforehand to help mitigate this potential confusion—better yet, a copy of the diagram at your fingertips. Airport taxiways and runways are usually organized in an orderly fashion and have typical flow patterns that pilots at the airport follow. You can also call the tower ahead of time on a mobile phone, or talk to other pilots to figure out those best practices and save yourself some trouble. 

In every situation, even with your best efforts, don’t be ashamed to ask for help. However, forming good habits can ensure you enjoy exploring new locations and continue to fly safely.

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