Flight Crew Flight Instructor; Flight Crew Commercial
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 100; Flight Crew Total 4500; Flight Crew Type 75
Physiological - Other; Distraction
Inflight Event / Encounter Other / Unknown
General None Reported / Taken
Environment - Non Weather Related; Human Factors
During the initial climb after a VFR departure from BVU (Boulder City airport) via GPS to the DAG VOR on an approximately heading of 225 the Co-pilot and I were distracted and momentarily blinded by the sun reflecting off of mirrors at the solar power plant facility located near the CA-NV border near the town of Primm. This solar power plant which I believe is still under construction consists of three massive circular arrays of thousands of mirrors oriented inward toward a central tower. As soon as we cleared the mountains southwest of BVU from 6;000 to 12;000 FT MSL still climbing there were three very bright reflections (one from each solar array) of the sun into the pilots and copilots eyes. The reflection from the northernmost array was the brightest and the largest and grew in size as we flew closer to the facility. The flight path of our aircraft passed overhead of this facility. At its brightest neither the pilot nor co-pilot could look in that direction due to the intense brightness. From the pilot's seat of my aircraft the brightness was like looking into the sun and it filled about 1/3 of the co-pilots front windshield. In my opinion the reflection from these mirrors was a hazard to flight because for a brief time I could not scan the sky in that direction to look for other aircraft.
A flight crew experienced a very bright; intense light from three solar complexes which interfered with their ability to scan for traffic while climbing westbound between 6;000 and 12;000 feet along J60/V12 southwest of NATEE Intersection.