← All explained questions · Night Operations
The black-hole approach illusion most typically causes a pilot to do what?
Choices
✓ Fly a lower-than-safe approach over dark terraincorrect
With no visual references over dark terrain, pilots tend to fly too low.
Fly a higher-than-safe approach
The illusion tends to make the approach too low, not too high.
Line up with a taxiway instead of the runway
That is a different lighting confusion, not the black-hole illusion.
Overbank in a turn
Overbanking relates to false-horizon/spatial disorientation, not the black hole.
Why
A black-hole approach over featureless dark terrain or water removes the cues needed to judge height, so pilots commonly descend too low; a VASI or PAPI helps counter it.
FAA source: AIM 8-1-5 / PHAK Ch. 17browse the reference library →
Original study question written for this course — representative of FAA knowledge-test topics, not an actual current FAA exam question.