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Avoiding Night Blindness While Flying

Posted: Sat Nov 23, 2019 10:07 pm
by NDCDA62
A very nice tip from Plane & Pilot for your iPhone and iPad.

The Red mode is very effective.

https://www.planeandpilotmag.com/articl ... dms_iWIbDs

Re: Avoiding Night Blindness While Flying

Posted: Sun Nov 24, 2019 9:25 pm
by Pehu
Oh! That was super good advice. Tested it with severals apps and they are all usable!

Re: Avoiding Night Blindness While Flying

Posted: Mon Nov 25, 2019 3:53 pm
by Guest
Great post.

Re: Avoiding Night Blindness While Flying

Posted: Mon Nov 25, 2019 4:10 pm
by Colin
I am on O2 for long flights and that improves your night vision. The iPad, obviously, is in Night Mode. Things in the cockpit are kept dim. I need to get a better headlamp that has a red light, though.

Re: Avoiding Night Blindness While Flying

Posted: Mon Nov 25, 2019 4:19 pm
by Diamond_Dan
PIREP on this headlamp absolutely love it. It has built in prevention for preserving your night vision. It has only one button. Push it and you get a dim red light good for most nighttime cockpit needs. Push it again and it turns off. You have to double press the button to get high intensity red, and the white light only comes on if you hold the button several seconds. The angle is adjustable. Only minor nick is the battery compartment is difficult to open. I preemptively replace it in the fall when the days grow short and it has never run out on me.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000E ... UTF8&psc=1

Re: Avoiding Night Blindness While Flying

Posted: Mon Nov 25, 2019 5:43 pm
by Steve
There are a couple of issues with red light illumination at night. The first is Red Light Presbyopia. This is mostly seen in early presbyopes (48-54 years old). Your eye needs more accommodation to focus red light. Couple this with the larger pupil in dim illumination, and you will have more blurred images in red light. This isn't an issue for many of us who are old enough to be fully-developed presbyopes, with virtually no accommodation, and we use spectacles to correct for near vision.

There is also the issue of iatrogenic dyschromatopsia (alteration of color perception under single color illumination). This may or may not be an issue, since most of us do not use paper charts anymore.

These two factors led to aircraft manufacturers switching to dim white from dim red panel illumination in the 1970s to 1980s.

The above information is a result of my experience as a Navy Flight Surgeon and ophthalmologist...

Steve

PS: What Colin said about O2 is very important. In the P3C community the cockpit crew went on O2 one hour before landing at night.

Re: Avoiding Night Blindness While Flying

Posted: Mon Nov 25, 2019 7:38 pm
by Colin
I believe the programmer of X-Plane was a victim of iatrogenic dyschromatopsia and flew into the DC TFR when it was young and less known. He was violated and I think it was a tremendous fight to keep his certificate.

Re: Avoiding Night Blindness While Flying

Posted: Wed Nov 27, 2019 4:21 pm
by cptndavid
In the 1960's Cessna went to blue light in the cockpit It was determined that one could read the red printing on the paper charts and did not detract for night vision. I carry a blue pen light in the airplane along with about 5 other flash lights and a few cylume light sticks. Just in case you know.