Narrative:

I experienced temporary blind spots in my vision while scanning for traffic as a cfii/safety pilot for my instrument student (pilot flying) while on an IFR flight plan. The cause of the event was 3 extremely bright solar towers located approximately 35 miles southwest of the las vegas VORTAC. We were being vectored off of V538 direct to hector (hec) VORTAC. When I was scanning for traffic to the south and west; I experienced temporary blindness; visual discomfort and distraction. I was unable to scan at all for about 5 minutes while my eyes recovered from the initial event; and I was also unable to safely scan for traffic anywhere near the direction of the solar towers (about a 90 degree sector from my 12 to 3 o'clock position) for about 10 minutes until we flew past the towers and they were behind us. On our return flight a few hours later; also on an IFR flight plan; we were actually vectored directly over the solar farm. This time; being more aware of the danger; I was able to avoid being blinded; but it was still impossible to scan in that general direction. Of note; the distraction was mitigated a little by flying directly to and over the solar farm; because the nose of the aircraft blocked more of the affected view from the cockpit and also we passed the towers quicker than flying around it. I don't know any way to prevent this from happening to anyone in the future if they are flying in the vicinity of the solar farm. I question the logic behind placing them in an air-traffic corridor near class B airspace when there is a large amount of untraveled tracts of airspace all over southern ca and nv.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A small; low wing aircraft instructor pilot experiences temporary blindness after viewing solar arrays 35 NM southwest of LAS.

Narrative: I experienced temporary blind spots in my vision while scanning for traffic as a CFII/safety pilot for my instrument student (pilot flying) while on an IFR flight plan. The cause of the event was 3 extremely bright solar towers located approximately 35 miles southwest of the Las Vegas VORTAC. We were being vectored off of V538 direct to Hector (HEC) VORTAC. When I was scanning for traffic to the south and west; I experienced temporary blindness; visual discomfort and distraction. I was unable to scan at all for about 5 minutes while my eyes recovered from the initial event; and I was also unable to safely scan for traffic anywhere near the direction of the solar towers (about a 90 degree sector from my 12 to 3 o'clock position) for about 10 minutes until we flew past the towers and they were behind us. On our return flight a few hours later; also on an IFR flight plan; we were actually vectored directly over the solar farm. This time; being more aware of the danger; I was able to avoid being blinded; but it was still impossible to scan in that general direction. Of note; the distraction was mitigated a little by flying directly to and over the solar farm; because the nose of the aircraft blocked more of the affected view from the cockpit and also we passed the towers quicker than flying around it. I don't know any way to prevent this from happening to anyone in the future if they are flying in the vicinity of the solar farm. I question the logic behind placing them in an air-traffic corridor near Class B airspace when there is a large amount of untraveled tracts of airspace all over southern CA and NV.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.