Quote:
Originally Posted by Hero Protagonist
Some airplanes have very poor forward visibility. The Pitts Special is notorious for it, and it's also a very tricky airplane to land with a tendency to ground loop. There was a pilot in a Pitts around here who landed over an ATR that was lined up on the runway to take off a few years ago.
That's very true, but that's kind of an exotic example. The Pitts is a one seat airplane (there is a two seat model, the S2B) and meant specifically for aerobatic flying.
Quote:
Originally Posted by eric_ca
Since you say there is good forward visibility, it makes me wonder how the Air Canada flight proceeded to get so close to the planes sitting on the taxiway.
I don't think I actually addressed this question. The reason they were able to get so close is that it can be difficult to pick out stationary airplanes on the ground at night. The only lights on a plane sitting on a taxiway are the position lights (red light on the left wing; green light on the right wing; white light on the tail) and the red rotating beacon. From a distance, these don't stand out at all and can be easy to overlook in the sea of lights in front of you as you approach the airport.