Moderator: American AAdvantage
Join Date: May 2000
Location: NorCal - SMF area
Programs: AA LT Plat; HH LT Diamond, Maître-plongeur des Muccis
Posts: 62,948
Many of these landings occur at night.
You have to be a pilot and have flown at night to understand how this can happen (yeah, I have been a pilot and have flown at night). Even with instruments, etc. when you see those inviting lights beckon and you are "very sure"... you can be wrong. Just using visual guidance, you can't tell so much about runway length etc. because you have little to no perspective.
You have to get over your confidence and use the systems in the aircraft, but at the same time you really want to keep your focus on the lights. One of the answers to this issue is the coming of HUD (Heads Up Displays) in civil aircraft.
Again, "often" should be put into perspective - e.g. percentage? Per 100,000? Not so often.