Night Flying. How many PPSEL pilots excersie night priveledges?

wrote in message
ups.com...
I have about 150 total hours now, but my only night flights were during
my training as required for certification.

I fly in the Bay Area, CA I would love to see the beautiful scenery of
the city lights that night flying offers.

How long does it take to comfortabley fly at night and how do those of
you that fly at night navigate in the dark?

Or I guess a better question is what techniques do you use at night to
navigate that are different then how you navigate during the day?

Do you just fly the altitudes that you fly during the day time to stay
safely from getting too close to anything?

I know the easy answer is to go up with an instructor, and I plan too,
but I wanted to hear from you all first and see what you do differently
at night versus the day and how many of you actually take advantage of
night flying.


Back in the olden days, when I was an active pilot, I used to love to go up
at night and sight-see. I don't recall much night cross country work though.

I would suggest just going up and spending some time in the pattern so you
get used to landing at night and you get a good idea what the airport looks
like at night. Land without hte landing light a few times to get used to
that too - they do burn out, you know. Follow up with some very local
flights (right over the airport if airspace permits) so you get the bigger
picture. It is a lot easier to get lost since most landmarks look different
(the airport will be thaqt big dark area). If push comes to shove, you can
always use a GPS,VOR's, or vectors from ATC (assuming your battery doesn't
go flat) to find your way back the first few times - but you wouldn't want
to become dependant on that kind of stuff. After a few local flights, you
will get the picture and be a lot more proficient at finding landmarks
(cities, highways) and navigating. (start out in clear weather, of course)

And, as you suggest, there is nothing wrong with dragging an instuctor or a
more experienced pilot (doesn't _have_ to be an insructor, right?) along for
the ride.

Night time can be fun. It's surprising how you can pick out the glow from
cities a long ways away on a clear night. But there is increased risk
because it is easier to get lost and the chance that you will pick a less
than suitable landing spot if the engine decides to stop making noise is
much higher.

Also, I would assume that whatever you are flying has enough alternator to
keep up with all the lights/radio's - but double check. The generator that
had been added to the C-120 I used to fly wouldn't keep up with the landing
light, so if you left it on, you would eventually run out of juice.

--
Geoff
The Sea Hawk at Wow Way d0t Com
remove spaces and make the obvious substitutions to reply by mail
When immigration is outlawed, only outlaws will immigrate.

"Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe" The Sea Hawk at wow way d0t com wrote

If push comes to shove, you can always use a GPS,VOR's, or vectors from ATC
(assuming your battery doesn't go flat) to find your way back the first few
times - but you wouldn't want to become dependant on that kind of stuff.

Why not? This kind of advise always hacks me off, a little bit. Why do we have
these modern things, if not to take advantage of them? Plan for failures, as
unlikely as multiple failures are, and layers of backup.

Yes, we have to make plan B's, and plan C's.

Keep your situational awareness up. Know where you are, and where your useable
airports are, all the time, in case something does go seriously astray. Your
were doing this anyway, as you always do for any flight, right?

Have a GPS in your panel? OK, take along a backup hand-held GPS, and extra
batteries. You have a backup. If you panel mount fails, consider that a very
strong suggestion to land, and consider your next move, unless you know for sure
where you are, and can make it home on ded reckoning, and visual pilotage, and
perhaps another form of backup. If you are proficient on using VOR's, then you
might not consider losing two GPS units as a flight ending situation. Vectors
from ATC can usually be considered as even another layer of protection/backup,
if you have a handheld (or two) and extra batteries, and a way to hook to an
external antenna, if your plane does not allow for good handheld use without the
external antenna. Adapters to hook up your headset to the handheld may be
needed for your particular plane.

If your battery goes flat, because of your charging system packing it in, then
just MAYBE you ought to land, at night? No rocket science, in making that kind
of decision. Still, for the backup prepared, there need not be a life and death
situation, from having a dead electrical system. There can still be a ton of
backups. Oh, and of course, you do have your FAA required flashlight (with
extra batteries) with you, so you can see your panel, right?
--
Jim in NC