Some years ago, when I lived in the Midwest, my business associates and I would charter planes for some of our business trips.  On one such trip I and two others boarded a small twin engine plane.  I yelled out “shotgun” and sat in the co-pilot’s seat.  We were bound for Pottstown, Pennsylvania. which was about two hours to the east.  Our pilot, a defector from the Czechoslovakian (now known as the Chech Republic and Slovokia) Air Force, had been a Russian MIG fighter jet pilot.  What was memorable and frankly creepy about the flight was that once we were just a few feet airborne I could not see anything.  It was a cold winter day and the visibility was basically down to zero.  That was my first experience being up-close with someone totally flying by instruments.

The first thing I observed was that the pilot was electronically locked into the location beam of the tiny Pottstown airport where we were headed.  Then commenced his frequent communication with air traffic control and his continual monitoring of radar, air speed, altitude, and aircraft orientation.  I was fascinated and then startled as our view cleared just a few feet above the runway as we landed.