Who has a night rating?

"Robert M. Gary" wrote in message
om...

I do all most all of my night flying IFR. Personally, any night flight
out of the local area is IFR. I've lost one good friend who hit the
ground by accident at night (ref: NTSB N80720).

Unfortunately the Commercial certificate makes you take at least one night
cross-country VFR. Is that inadvertently instilling bad habits? :-) Even
more annoying, you have to bring along some CFI-ballast.

(I did mine Tuesday; it was a nice night around here).

-- David Brooks

In article ,
"David Brooks" wrote:

"Robert M. Gary" wrote in message
om...

I do all most all of my night flying IFR. Personally, any night flight
out of the local area is IFR. I've lost one good friend who hit the
ground by accident at night (ref: NTSB N80720).

Unfortunately the Commercial certificate makes you take at least one night
cross-country VFR. Is that inadvertently instilling bad habits? :-) Even
more annoying, you have to bring along some CFI-ballast.

Not at all -- I have many 500+mile night trips under my belt (all VFR).
You just have to be extra careful about weather, so you don't get in
over your head.

Night w/low ceilings/poor vis + mountains = disaster.

"David Brooks" wrote in message
...
"Robert M. Gary" wrote in message
om...

I do all most all of my night flying IFR. Personally, any night flight
out of the local area is IFR. I've lost one good friend who hit the
ground by accident at night (ref: NTSB N80720).

Unfortunately the Commercial certificate makes you take at least one night
cross-country VFR. Is that inadvertently instilling bad habits? :-) Even
more annoying, you have to bring along some CFI-ballast.


Not only that, but charter pilots are prohibited from filing IFR until they
meet minimum experience requirements. So you get a lot of low time scud
runners.

Recently, David Brooks posted:

"Robert M. Gary" wrote in message
om...

I do all most all of my night flying IFR. Personally, any night
flight out of the local area is IFR. I've lost one good friend who
hit the ground by accident at night (ref: NTSB N80720).

Unfortunately the Commercial certificate makes you take at least one
night cross-country VFR. Is that inadvertently instilling bad habits?

I don't think so. One just has to use good judgement and consider the
parameters of night flying. For example, if the weather is marginal for
day VFR, it would be a good idea cancel the night VFR.

Some positives:
* You can "see and avoid" traffic much easier, as you can see the running
lights from a lot further away than you can during the day.

* The air is typically much smoother at night.

* Landing is easier for some, because you can focus on more useful
indicators of your status.

Some cautions:
* Pilotage and map reading skills are important. Terrain is difficult to
see, so knowing where you are is more challenging.

* Finding an airport located within a city can be tricky.

Neil

"Neil Gould" wrote in message
hlink.net...
Recently, David Brooks posted:

"Robert M. Gary" wrote in message
om...

I do all most all of my night flying IFR. Personally, any night
flight out of the local area is IFR. I've lost one good friend who
hit the ground by accident at night (ref: NTSB N80720).

Unfortunately the Commercial certificate makes you take at least one
night cross-country VFR. Is that inadvertently instilling bad habits?

I don't think so. One just has to use good judgement and consider the
parameters of night flying. For example, if the weather is marginal for
day VFR, it would be a good idea cancel the night VFR.

Some positives:
* You can "see and avoid" traffic much easier, as you can see the running
lights from a lot further away than you can during the day.

* The air is typically much smoother at night.

* Landing is easier for some, because you can focus on more useful
indicators of your status.

Some cautions:
* Pilotage and map reading skills are important. Terrain is difficult to
see, so knowing where you are is more challenging.

* Finding an airport located within a city can be tricky.

Roger all of that. I was only pointing out a slight irony. To the above
cautions, I'd add: learning how to detect clouds (with and without city
lights underneath) and *really* listening to the current reports from
Fligh****ch. A/FD reading skills are also important - both the airports I
used have traps for occasional night fliers.

-- David Brooks

"David Brooks" wrote in message
...
To the above
cautions, I'd add: learning how to detect clouds (with and without city
lights underneath) and *really* listening to the current reports from
Fligh****ch. A/FD reading skills are also important - both the airports I
used have traps for occasional night fliers.

Hello David,

Please elaborate-- what airports, what traps, and what information in the
A/FD is useful in avoiding those traps?

Cheers,
John Clonts
Temple, Texas
N7NZ

"John Clonts" wrote in message
...

"David Brooks" wrote in message
...
To the above
cautions, I'd add: learning how to detect clouds (with and without city
lights underneath) and *really* listening to the current reports from
Fligh****ch. A/FD reading skills are also important - both the airports
I
used have traps for occasional night fliers.

Hello David,

Please elaborate-- what airports, what traps, and what information in the
A/FD is useful in avoiding those traps?

The displaced threshhold on Kelso 12 being unlit at night. I forget the
details of what the book says, but clearly it's tempting to land short.

Paine has a dual pattern for its runway (only one is open) after the tower
closes, and small planes fly a left pattern for 16R. To be fair, this is
announced on the ATIS, but that doesn't seem to help always: the plane
coming after me called in for a left pattern for 34L.

-- David Brooks