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crewdog@flash.net (Michael) wrote in
<RPOX5.2402$bw.149861@news.flash.net>:

>It's all about dividing attention. When you are enroute IMC, you are
>100% inside, and breaking out into the clear might come as a total
>surprise. When you are crossing the fence, you are 100% outside
>and anything the gauges show you at this point is irrelevant. Anywhere
>in between there is a division of attention. You start looking outside
>a little as you start the descent on your instrument approach, and as
>you get close to the MAP you are about 50/50 inside and outside. The
>point I am making is that when you spot the runway environment you
>do not all of a sudden go 100% outside. If the visibility below the
>deck is good you CAN, but in the interest of being prepared for the
>day you really have to deal with a non-precision approach in low vis,
>you shouldn't. My guess is that on a low-vis approach you are still
>about 25% inside until you are on final, and then about 10% inside
>almost to the fence.

I agree with you pretty much completely on all this. I do almost the same
thing, even VFR. I fly helicopters in the Gulf of Mexico at night, landing
on platforms & ships, with total darkness all around. We normally fly over
the platform at about 400', to make sure we're in the right place,
determine the wind, make sure cranes aren't operating on the heliport, etc,
then make a pattern to land into the wind if possible. It takes
concentration & division of attention to keep the landing area, maintain
altitude & airspeed, & get lined up. We have 2 pilots, but even so it's
not a piece of cake, & the GPS helps immensely. If we're using the GPS &
radar to do an instrument approach down to 200/ 3/4 (300/1 at night) it's
even more difficult.

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