An air carrier pilot climbing through approximately FL180 on the las shead 8 RNAV SID commented on t...

Attributes
ACN	1184374
Time
Date	201406
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	LAS.Airport
State Reference	NV
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	B737 Next Generation Undifferentiated
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Climb
Route In Use	SID SHEAD 8 RNAV
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	First Officer Pilot Not Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Events
Anomaly	Inflight Event / Encounter Other / Unknown

Narrative:

[We] noticed a great deal of glare from the western most solar generator at the ivanpah solar farm. We were flying the shead 8 departure from runway 7L and experienced significant glare from approximately miney until approximately 20 miles east of shead. The glare was significantly stronger than from the other two stations and appeared to be due to poor aiming of the mirrors. In addition to overall glare; there were spots of glare separate from the rest of the mirror farm. While we were westbound; and the glare was more of a distraction; it would have been very difficult for us to fly southbound and pick out traffic from below and/or have to stare into that light. We mentioned the glare to lax center. The flight continued normally after shead.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An air carrier pilot climbing through approximately FL180 on the LAS SHEAD 8 RNAV SID commented on the Solar Farm glare while flying northwest between HITME and SHEAD intersections around early afternoon.

Narrative: [We] noticed a great deal of glare from the western most solar generator at the Ivanpah Solar Farm. We were flying the SHEAD 8 departure from Runway 7L and experienced significant glare from approximately MINEY until approximately 20 miles east of SHEAD. The glare was significantly stronger than from the other two stations and appeared to be due to poor aiming of the mirrors. In addition to overall glare; there were spots of glare separate from the rest of the mirror farm. While we were westbound; and the glare was more of a distraction; it would have been very difficult for us to fly southbound and pick out traffic from below and/or have to stare into that light. We mentioned the glare to LAX Center. The flight continued normally after SHEAD.

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.

An air carrier pilot climbing through approximately FL180 on the las shead 8 RNAV SID commented on the solar farm glare while flying northwest between hitme and shead intersections around early afternoon.