Seeing in the Dark

[SteinAir]

Originally Posted by Mark33

That won't work. The camera lens has to be exposed to the elements, so it wouldn't work inside the cockpit....at least that's what the company told me.

This is an excellent point and one that sort of caused the previous generations of FLIR cameras for aircraft to be of limited popularity (because this very technology has been displayed on EFISes by Garmin, AFS, MGL and GRT for at least a couple years now - so that part is nothing new at all). That said, the packaging, size and price of the external componetry is getting to the point that it may be a better option now, though I'm still fairly certain that a lot of folks looking at these don't really understand what the "camera's" capabilities are as far as what it'll see and show you. It's already been said that it can't see through clouds, it can't see through a plexiglass window at this point (therefore no mounting it in a nice aerodynamic enclosure), and the lenses need to be exposed to the elemtns (and bugs and garbage, etc..).

These are primarily temperature sensitive devices and shouldn't be confused with NV (which is sometimes an entirely different technology, or a combination of technologies). We shouldn't necessarily lump FLIR/Thermal imaging into IR cameras or NV cameras....though they all offer some sort of "night vision", they aren't necessarily the same. Not saying either of the various technologies are better or worse than the others, but just pointing out that it might not necessarily be the same thing you're thinking of when you see these pictures, vs what you see on TV, or see in a Military plane, or on a HUD in the high end Gulfstreams, etc..

Exciting for sure, and now that prices are creeping down I'm sure we'll see more and more adoption of them, but as stated before it's not new technology (on an EFIS or not)....just new to Paul!

I know a fellow at our local grass strip with trees on the end sure could've used something like this before his Cessna 150 and Whitetail deer collision!

Cheers,
Stein

[6 Gun]

I went back and read what Paul wrote and it looks like it will work from in the plane (I shot this with the camera held at my chest while Louise flew from the back seat ? see how well she was able to hold altitude, at night, with no view of the panel!) so a gimble from the top canopy might work with a joy stick while you look at screen. If anyone pat., this i want my half.
Bob

[erich weaver]

Originally Posted by 6 Gun

I went back and read what Paul wrote and it looks like it will work from in the plane (I shot this with the camera held at my chest while Louise flew from the back seat ? see how well she was able to hold altitude, at night, with no view of the panel!) so a gimble from the top canopy might work with a joy stick while you look at screen. If anyone pat., this i want my half.
Bob

I believe the camera that Paul was referring to was a normal video camera that captured the footage of what was appearing on his EFIS and panel. The Flir camera was likely mounted outside. Confused me for a minute as well...
erich

[ColoRv]

$4500....

I take back what I said. That's just far too steep for a camera....I can't afford it...Stein already took my last dollar.

:-)

[Stitch462]

Originally Posted by Ironflight

There is no doubt that an engine-out in a single at night is objectively more dangerous than in the daylight. Unless you happen to be on top of a lighted airport, knowing what you are going to find when you meet the earth is a bit of a dice roll.

Found at Baseops.net : Engine Failure at night in a GA airplane: Turn on the landing light before impact, if you don't like what you see, turn it off

Seriously, this looks like a super cool system.

[Ironflight]

Originally Posted by erich weaver

I believe the camera that Paul was referring to was a normal video camera that captured the footage of what was appearing on his EFIS and panel. The Flir camera was likely mounted outside. Confused me for a minute as well...
erich

Correct I was talking about holding the video camera to shoot pictures of the EFIS screen - the FLIR camera does not move, and is mounted under the wing.

[RV8R999]

Originally Posted by Radioflyer

This would be a very good backup for night flying. In addition to learning its peculiarities (cold fields, clouds, etc), one has to remember that with a fixed camera, one is limited to where the aircraft happens to be pointing. Therefore, one might not be aware that there is a perfectly good field just over and behind one's shoulder. A miniature flir camera on a miniature pan-tilt mount driven by head movements or thumbstick might be an improvement. Then again, quickly donning on a pair of NVG goggles might be even better.

I agree.. you can get a descent set of NVG's for about the same $ these days. You are not gonna get ANVS-9's but certainly a good enough and there exists an FAA instructor rating nowadays...

very useful device.

[GusBiz]

Am I the only one that thinks this is exactly what Ken described. Just a super cool Toy.

Something to look at out of your own curitosity but not something to make flight decisions on?

Where I do believe it is important is landing on grass strips in the boonies where you can get deer (or for our end of the world Kangaroos) caught in landing lights with no way of seeing them other wise. That I think is useful.

But you have to ask yourself do I really NEED to be landing there in pitch black. Can I wait till tomorrow or leave early or later, Am I going to spend $4500 on the luxury of that once a month grass field landing I am going to do at 9:00pm because I stayed a little too long at my friends place.

I don't know, there is lots I can do with $4500 and its kind of a toy.

Not to say that I don't want one..of course I do!! but then again I would like a corvette too but I don't know if I need a 600HP car to sit in traffic most of the time.

Maybe this a "passion vs want" debate which means go buy it if it makes you smile.

Life is short

[L.Adamson]

Originally Posted by GusBiz

But you have to ask yourself do I really NEED to be landing there in pitch black.

snipped

Maybe this a "passion vs want" debate which means go buy it if it makes you smile.

Do you really need a little airplane?

[gtmule]

AC-130 gunships use IR/thermal cameras to shoot bad guys at night (for now), and I think our application would be similar, that is, we're not interested in looking through clouds or seeing 50 miles or whatever, just interested in staying away from trees near the runway or missing the trees during a night engine-out landing that's in reasonable terrain.