BLACK HOLE APPROACHES

INTRODUCTION

Most pilots enjoy flying at night. As the evening cools down,

there is normally less turbulence.

Reduced traffic means less radio frequency congestion, and its

often easier to spot other aircraft - provided they have their lights
on.

Flying over any town with its sparkling ground lights at night, is
always a pretty sight.
 INTRODUCTION

But there are very real dangers unique to night flying!

For example, pilots can be tricked into flying too low at night
when approaching upslope runways or runways with greater
length-to-width ratios than they are accustomed to.

The most deadly of these hazards, however, is the black hole

approach. Black hole conditions exist on dark nights (usually
with no moon or starlight), when there are no ground lights
between your aircraft and the runway threshold.

The black hole illusion, sometimes called the featureless terrain

illusion, fools pilots into thinking they are higher than they
actually are, causing them to fly dangerously low approaches.
 AIM

The aim of this presentation is to make pilots

aware of the black hole phenomena so that
they will be able to identify a potential threat
and subsequently counter the effects during
the visual approach at night.
 SCOPE

Black Hole Approaches will be covered under the following

headings:

1. Optical Illusions
2. What is a black hole approach.
3. What causes the black hole approach?
4. Aggravating factors.
5. Planning for the black hole approach.
 OPTICAL ILLUSIONS

Your eyes really don't do the seeing your brain does. Your
eyes simply transmit electrical pulses and your brain does the
work of making sense of those spikes of electricity.

It perceives what it "sees" in the setting in which it is viewed. The

surrounding objects and colours or lack of them will have a
big effect on what sense your brain makes of the electrical
impulses sent to it by the retinas.

Before we talk about black hole approaches, let's explore some

of the ways your perceptions can mislead you. That will give us a
basis for a better understanding of the illusions you experience
during a black hole approach.
 OPTICAL ILLUSIONS

1. Which of these two lines is the longer?

1. You have probably seen this example

before and know that both lines are the same
length, but still the surroundings of the two
vertical lines fooled your brain into believing that
the left line is the longer.
 OPTICAL ILLUSIONS

2. Are these three lines parallel?

2. Yes, they are. But again there is that

overwhelming perception that the three lines
are not parallel.
 OPTICAL ILLUSIONS

3. Which one of the two grey squares is

the brighter?

3. Although both both grey squares are in the

same place and are the same colour, the small
square surrounded by black seems brighter
and closer than when it is surrounded by white.
 OPTICAL ILLUSIONS

To summarise

The visual surroundings of an object give you valuable

clues about its size and distance from you.

Lines can show perspective, which is an indicator of

distance.

The brightness of an object is another attribute the brain

takes into account when determining the nearness of an
object. We perceive dimmer objects to be farther away
than bright ones.
 WHAT IS A BLACK HOLE APPROACH?

Normally, when descending toward an airport during the day, a

pilot uses depth perception to estimate distance to and altitude
above an airport.

The pilot can fairly easily

descend along an
approximately three-
degree visual approach
slot to a distant runway.
 WHAT IS A BLACK HOLE APPROACH?

On a moonless or overcast night, however, the pilot has little or

no depth perception because the necessary visual cues (colour
variations, shadows & topographical references) are absent.
This lack of depth perception makes estimating altitude and
distance difficult.

The problem is exacerbated when straight-in approaches are

made over water or over dark, featureless terrain on an overcast
or moonless night.

The only visual stimuli are distant sources of light in the vicinity
of the destination airport.
 WHAT IS A BLACK HOLE APPROACH?

Such situations where straight-in approaches are made over

water or over dark, featureless terrain on an overcast or
moonless night, are often referred to as" black hole" approaches.

The "black hole" refers not to the airport,

but to the featureless darkness over
which the approach is being conducted.

Over water approaches or airfields in the middle of the desert

are notable examples.
 WHAT CAUSES A BLACK HOLE APPROACH

Over the years, the "black hole" approach has claimed many
lives, but the cause was not understood until two Boeing
Company engineers, Dr. Conrad L. Kraft and Dr. Charles L.
Elworth, conducted an extensive study of the problem.

The research programme involved a specially developed visual

night-approach simulator that a dozen of Boeing's senior
pilot/instructors flew under various conditions.

The results were published in a Boeing report entitled, "Flight

Deck Work Load and Night Visual Approach Performance".

Their conclusions finally explained what might cause pilots to too

low during black hole approaches.
 WHAT CAUSES A BLACK HOLE APPROACH

Under normal conditions, a pilot flying a normal three-degree

glide path will see a constantly changing view of the runway.

While the aiming point on the runway will remain stationary in the
field of view, the visual angle occupied by the runway is
constantly changing.
 WHAT CAUSES A BLACK HOLE APPROACH

The visual angle is the angle that the destination airport (and
surrounding lighting) occupies (or subtends) in a pilot's vertical
field of vision.
 WHAT CAUSES A BLACK HOLE APPROACH

So, during a normal approach, the touchdown spot remains fixed

in the windscreen and the apparent height (visual angle) of the
runway increases as the aircraft descends.

Just before touchdown, the runway nearly fills the windscreen.

 WHAT CAUSES A BLACK HOLE APPROACH

During the project, Kraft and Elworth had hypothesized and then
confirmed that pilots executing "black hole" approaches tend not
to vary their descent profiles according to runway perspective
as they normally do during conventional straight-in approaches.

Instead, the researchers discovered that pilots maintain a

constant visual angle while descending during such
approaches.
 WHAT CAUSES A BLACK HOLE APPROACH

The flight path during which the visual angle remains constant
consists of the arc of a circle centered high above the light
pattern toward which the pilot is descending.
 WHAT CAUSES A BLACK HOLE APPROACH

As can be seen, flying such an arc places the aircraft well below
the three-degree descent profile normally used when a pilot has
better depth perception.

The worst is that the circumference of this arc is sufficiently large

that the pilot has no way of detecting that he is flying along an
arc instead of a straight line.
 WHAT CAUSES A BLACK HOLE APPROACH

Although research has not yet discovered why pilots tend to

keep the visual angle of the runway constant under black hole
conditions, they have discovered that the condition is universal.

You WILL be fooled if you try to conduct a long, straight-in

approach over featureless terrain using only out-the-window
references.

There is no amount of training or practice that will make this

illusion go away. Just like the visual illusions we looked at
earlier, you know what the answer is, but your perceptions lie to
you repeatedly.

As you have seen, these false perceptions can be

overwhelming. The only defence you have is awareness and
avoidance.
 AGGRAVATING FACTORS

Some conditions aggravate the black hole. Be alert when you

observe the following conditions:

An airport that is on the near side of a brightly lit city with few or
no terrain features or lights between you and the airport. The
brightness of the city lights will give the impression that they are
closer than they are.
 AGGRAVATING FACTORS

Other aggravating conditions:

An airport that is on the coast or in very sparsely settled terrain

such as deserts and wilderness areas. This is the classic black
hole scenario.

A night with extremely clear air and excellent visibility. One of the
things we use to judge distance is the normal hazing that
distance provides. When the air is extremely clear, this lack of
hazing makes things appear much closer than they really are.
 AGGRAVATING FACTORS

The Boeing study further showed that problems associated with

a "black hole" approach appear to be further be aggravated by :

a long, straight-in approach to an airport located on the near side

of a small city,

a runway length/width combination that is unfamiliar to a pilot,

an airport that is situated at a slightly lower elevation and on a

different slope than the surrounding terrain,

substandard runway and airport lighting, and

a sprawling city with an irregular matrix of lights spread over

various hillsides behind the airport.
 AGGRAVATING FACTORS

Furthermore, a pilot can be mislead during a night visual

approach by any of the following factors :

Brightly lit runway-lighting displays appear to be closer than they

really are and cause pilots to descend prematurely.

This is easily demonstrated by requesting a tower controller to

vary runway lighting intensity during your next lengthy, straight-in
approach. As the lights dim, you will tend to flatten out the
approach; as they brighten, you will tend to steepen the
approach.

Extremely clear air, such as often is found in the desert, also

encourages early descents because lighted objects seem closer
than they really are.
 AGGRAVATING FACTORS

When the horizon cannot be seen, scattered and distant ground

lights can be mistaken for stars. These suggest to a pilot that the
aircraft's attitude is excessively nose high, which results in a
tendency for the pilot to lower the nose and fly below the proper
approach glide path.

A similar effect can be caused by the distant (upper) edge of city

lights, which also can make the horizon seem lower than it is.

Peering through a rain-soaked windshield can convince a pilot

(because of refraction) that the aircraft is too high and can result
in an error of as much as 200 feet of altitude per nautical mile
from the runway. (Refraction bends the visual approach path in
the same way that it "bends" the straw in a glass of water.)

Viewing an airport through an intervening rain shower makes the

runway lights seem bigger than they are, causing a pilot to
believe the aircraft is too high.
 AGGRAVATING FACTORS

An upslope runway (and/or surrounding city lighting) - day or

night - provides the illusion of being too high during a straight-in
approach. This results in a strong tendency to descend
prematurely.

Conversely, a downslope condition can lead to an overshoot.

 AVOIDING BLACK HOLE APPROACHES

The best way to combat these often subtle and insidious factors
that might suck a pilot into a black hole approach, is to:

Avoid long, straight-in, visual approaches at night without

glide slope guidance.

Furthermore, pilots seldom fall victim to the black hole illusions

when the final approach is less than two or three miles long.
 AVOIDING BLACK HOLE APPROACHES

There are certain precautions to increase altitude and distance

awareness during long, straight-in approaches at night when an
ILS or VASI is unavailable for descent guidance.

Remember that although a VASI may be visible for up to 30

miles at night, safe obstruction clearance is guaranteed only
within four miles of the runway threshold.

DME (if available and appropriate) can help to establish a safe

descent profile.

Always maintain a watchful eye on airspeed, altitude, and sink

rate. An excessive sink rate (for the airspeed being flown)
indicates either a strong tailwind or an abnormally steep descent
profile.
 AVOIDING BLACK HOLE APPROACHES

Rules of thumb:

A 3 descent profile can be maintained by being 300

feet above ground level (AGL) for each nautical mile
from the runway. A 4 descent is established by
maintaining 400 feet per nautical mile, and so forth.

For a 3 approach, the rate of descent should be five

times the ground speed. Therefore, approaching at 120
knots across the ground, the rate of descent should be
about 600 fpm.
 AVOIDING BLACK HOLE APPROACHES

Remain alert.

Although stating this might seem superfluous, be certain that you

are descending towards an airport.

Pilots have been deceived by highway lights or other parallel

rows of lights that - from a distance - give the illusion of being
runway lights.

Maintain a safe altitude.

Maintain a safe altitude until the airport and its associated

lighting are distinctly visible and identifiable.

Like most people, pilots usually believe what they see. In "black
hole" approaches, however, pilots have compelling reasons not
to do so.
 AVOIDING BLACK HOLE APPROACHES

Proper approach planning and briefing can also mitigate the

effects of flying into an airport where a black hole approach is
probable.

The potential threat information can be identified from the

approach chart and should be discussed during the approach
briefing.

In the case where a black hole threat is identified, additional

awareness and monitoring procedures must be implemented.

Without cross-monitoring or intervention alerting the PF of any

flight-path deviation, a threat condition can quickly become a
significant safety hazard.
 AVOIDING BLACK HOLE APPROACHES

Furthermore, in black hole conditions, there is no point for the

PM (Pilot Monitoring) to use the same visual references as the
PF, as the chances are very good that both pilots would
encounter the same visual illusion.

Using a range table or an electronically defined VNAV flight-path

would provide the basis for independent monitoring.

During the approach altitude cross checks should be made every

300ft or 1 nm.

In aircraft equipped with EFIS, the runway should always be

displayed on the map display. If the EFIS is capable of
displaying a vertical profile, it must be monitored during final
approach.
 AVOIDING BLACK HOLE APPROACHES

Remember:

Like most people, pilots usually believe

what they see.

In "black hole" approaches, however,

pilots have compelling reasons not to do
so.