Ornge Chopper Pilots to get night vision goggles

[Heliian]

I believe that they are attempting to address the issue of visible obstacle lighting for nvgs. There are combination lights available.

[timel]

A set of goggles is about 15g's usd and night vision mods to a/c can cost anywhere from 50,000$usd for basic filters to serveral hundred thousand for specific manufacturer kits. The more expensive conversions don't include core returns for the digital displays and whatnot.

I checked again, it is 12000$-15000$ for goggles.

[AuxBatOn]

Do they not show any return on LED lights of any type? With everything including lights of other aircraft and even runway lights going to LED now does this not seem like a huge limitation?

No return at all. In an airport environment, you wouldn't want the lights on anyways since they are mostly non-NVG compatible and gain the goggles down, reducing the visial accuity. When I landed on gogs, I would get ATC to turn the running lights, runway and taxiway lights off.

Not a huge factor for me as I don't fly below 1K on gogs, but certaibly an issue for low fliers like helos. I seem to recall hearing that our Griffon crews fly with 1 crew under the gogs and one with the gogs up, to mitigate the obstacle lighting (amongst other things). Yup, they are working on a solution for the lighting, but I don't see the solution found and implemented within the next 5 years... Probably more like 10-15 years...

I don't agree that you can't do more than you used to without goggles. You can indeed do more at night than without. However, you can't do everything you would during daytime: it's an in-between.

[old_man]

Do they not show any return on LED lights of any type? With everything including lights of other aircraft and even runway lights going to LED now does this not seem like a huge limitation?

https://www.tc.gc.ca/eng/civilaviation/ ... 02-695.htm

Basically it is only some red LEDs that don't appear on NVGs.

Only a minute portion of the radiation spectrum is available for human vision and ranges from about 400 to 700 nanometers (nm). Aviation Red lights have an output from about 610 to 700nm. NVGs approved for civil aviation (having a Class B Minus Blue Filter) are sensitive to energy ranging from 665 to about 930nm in the infrared region. Because LEDs have a relatively narrow emission band and do not emit infrared energy [heat] like incandescent lights, it is possible for them to meet Transport Canada requirements for Aviation Red yet may not be observable through NVGs.

Echo by FAA

https://www.faa.gov/other_visit/aviatio ... O09007.pdf

But they will see other things at night like static electricity from landing in dust.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1xWiNRe-Lo

[GyvAir]

The LED light thing is interesting.
Getting a little tangential here, but what happens when someone points one the various toy, or not so toy lasers out there at an NVG equipped pilot? Probably not a likely scenario flying into a dark helipad north of Sudbury, etc... I’m just asking out of curiosity.

[Nark]

Aux:
it's interesting that your Griffon guys don't both wear NVG's. We either both wear them or both don't. Plus our crew chiefs also wear them. They are fantastic tools.

As for LED's we can't see them under goggles. Pain in the ass for lighted obstacles. They don't appear to be lit under goggles.

As for assholes who laser aircraft: there are protections in the goggles that filter out bright lights. I'm pretty sure AuX and I use than same kind, but there are two filters on them that either protect the device and shut them down, or protect our eyes, and shut them down.

[Nark]

I know a guy who was able to capture LED lights under NVG.

You can see that part of the taxiway is lit. What you don't see is the LED's that are visible to the naked eye.
Another photo you can barely make out the light.