Night Flying

"Fred Choate" wrote in message
...
Right.....

I realize why a lot of VFR pilots don't fly at night. But, considering
the route....obviously it would be safer to fly some routes than others.

I mentioned that to a Horizon pilot once....the "not being able to see
anything" deal. He brought up the argument that over urban areas, you
actually can see quite a bit. You can see the cities, the freeways,
runways from distances, things like that. Now, that is in a populated
area, for instance out here in the Pacific Northwest. But say in Montana,
once you leave the vicinity of your airport, you are in the dark for sure,
and runways are few and far between.

But what about flying areas that are a bit more congested where you don't
have mountains to run into, and lots of airports around. I can't say that
I wouldn't consider it when planning a cross country........but it would
certainly depend on the route, terrain, and things like that. From the
Seattle area here, one could fly the I-5 corridor to Portland, and have an
out (the freeway) in case of an engine failure, but also many lighted
strips along the way, as well as many cities for landmarks......

Fred,

As a strictly fair-weather (VFR only!) pilot flying a very modest airplane,
I simply have a separate set of personal minimums for night flying. They're
different from my rules for day flying.

* No flights over areas with little or no lights on the ground
* No flights over the mountains
* No flights over water
* No flights over wilderness
* No flights if there's ANY clouds or significant potential for clouds along
or near my route
* No flights if there's a small (or narrowing) temp/dew point spread
* No flights without full tanks (I rarely fly down much beyond 1/3 tanks in
the day time - at night I will not go below 1/2)

That does indeed limit me quite a bit. That's fine with me.

In fact, I pretty much limit myself to the I-5 corridor. I've done flights
along this corridor from Bellingham to Portland, and feel comfortable doing
so - as long as it's completely clear out and looks like it's definitely
going to stay that way. From a practical standpoint, almost all my night
flying has been coming home along this route. So if I have a long day
flying over the Cascades to central Washington and know I might not make it
home before dark, I will plan things to make sure that by the time it gets
dark, I'm within sight of I-5, and will follow it home. Usually I end up
landing at Kelso or Chehalis for fuel as darkness falls, and come home in
full darkness for the last hour. I see plenty of places where I couild land
in a pinch along that route.

I agree, on a clear night, as long as my criteria are met, flying at night
is beautiful and serene. If my criteria can't be met, I won't do it. I've
talked with guys that don't think twice about routinely charging off over
the mountains in a little plane just like mine, but I won't do it.

Hope that helps.

David Herman
N6170T 1965 Cessna 150E
Boeing Field (BFI), Seattle, WA
http://www.pacificnorthwestflying.com