Night Flying. How many PPSEL pilots excersie night priveledges?

Go out 1/2 hour before it gets dark and start doing some touch and
goes. Gradually it will get darker and you will be landing at night.

There is night and there is DARK night. Most night flying has ground
lights and stars and maybe some moonlight. Truely a dark, dark night is
different and harder. Also an airport out away from town, lit only by
it's runway edge lights on a DARK nignt IS difficult to judge. So don't
start with the DARK night. Give yourself some city lights, some
moonlight etc and enjoy the view. Avoid mountains at night. Nice to
have a good heater too....

"Doug" wrote in message
ups.com...
Go out 1/2 hour before it gets dark and start doing some touch and
goes. Gradually it will get darker and you will be landing at night.

There is night and there is DARK night. Most night flying has ground
lights and stars and maybe some moonlight. Truely a dark, dark night is
different and harder. Also an airport out away from town, lit only by
it's runway edge lights on a DARK nignt IS difficult to judge. So don't
start with the DARK night. Give yourself some city lights, some
moonlight etc and enjoy the view. Avoid mountains at night. Nice to
have a good heater too....

Another issue with night flying is haze. Here in the Southeast,
particularly in the summer, haze can severely limit your visibility. I've
been in situations where I was effectively IFR due to being over a sparsely
populated area in haze. The haze took away both the stars and enough
downward visibility that you couldn't see lights on the ground unless they
were right under you.

On one particular return trip from Osh, we ended up being IFR (I follow
roads) over I-24 and I-75 between Nashville and Atlanta. The interstates
were the only reliable references for visual flying. That flight was a
little spooky before we figured out the interstate thing.

KB

Kyle Boatright writes:

On one particular return trip from Osh, we ended up being IFR (I follow
roads) over I-24 and I-75 between Nashville and Atlanta. The interstates
were the only reliable references for visual flying. That flight was a
little spooky before we figured out the interstate thing.

I take it you didn't have any radio navigation instruments on board?

--
Transpose mxsmanic and gmail to reach me by e-mail.

I have to second many of Jay's points. In my younger, less experienced
times, I did a LOT of night flying (winter in mid-west, you either take
time off or fly at night). I loved it - beautiful sights, smooth air,
absolutely magical. Two years ago, I got the opportunity to land
engine out in a wheat field (during the day). Perfect touch down just
over the trees and just short of the road/ditch. No damage at all to
the plane or occupants. Pulled the wings, towed her to the nearest
airport, replaced an intake gasket and flew her home (oh yeah, removed
1/2 lb of wheat from the pitot). Anway, night flight has taken on a
new dimension since. It's amazing the "auto-rough" on the engine that
sets in about sunset. An off-field landing at night is something I
NEVER want to do. Flying here on full-moon or near full moon nights is
pretty easy, but I avoid overcast and/or sliver moon nights if at all
possible. I find myself constantly tracking "nearest airport" and
flying much higher as well as spending too much time on instruments
(engine in particular) and have to force myself to keep eyes out of the
plane (and on the sky instead of just the next potential landing spot).
I got back on the horse, but am a bit more skittish now for sure.
Jeff

PS - An actual off-field landing is something a sim will NEVER really
prepare you for. It's also something that's surprisingly different
than all of your practice power-outs. All that practice ingrains
excellent responses and instills the correct reactions, but there is a
"come to Jesus" moment when it's real. I discovered, for the first
time in my life, that I get REALLY bad lower back spasms under enough
stress :^). Never had a sim or had a practice flight indicate that
would happen :^).

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

Flying at night is lovely, and -- as many have mentioned -- a full moon
on a snow-covered landscape is fantastic. (And almost as bright as
daytime, once your eyes adjust.)

That said, Mary and I have made a conscious decision not to fly at
night until the kids are grown. We occasionally have to fly at night,
and enjoy it -- but we do our best to make plans that avoid night
flights.

Why? Because your options are pretty limited if your engine fails on a
dark night, and our kids need us. Around here, you would just aim the
plane for a dark spot, and hope for the best. NOT a good plan, in my
opinion.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Mxsmanic wrote:

Kyle Boatright writes:


On one particular return trip from Osh, we ended up being IFR (I follow
roads) over I-24 and I-75 between Nashville and Atlanta. The interstates
were the only reliable references for visual flying. That flight was a
little spooky before we figured out the interstate thing.


I take it you didn't have any radio navigation instruments on board?




You take it wrong. As usual. It had nothing to do with navigation.

Newps writes:

You take it wrong. As usual. It had nothing to do with navigation.

You mentioned interstates; it sounded like navigation to me.

--
Transpose mxsmanic and gmail to reach me by e-mail.

On Sat, 09 Dec 2006 14:34:03 -0800, Bob Fry
wrote:

.... a lot of good stuff removed ...

Do a short night hop
to a nearby airport that you have done many times in the daytime, for
instance, San Carlos to Palo Alto or Reid-Hillview.

Most of Bay Area is highly noise sensitive and additional restrictions
apply at night.
For example:
RHV - no touch-and-go after 9 PM
SQL - no touch-and-go when tower closed
HWD - rwy 10L/28R closed when tower closed
etc. -- read A/FD and NOTAMs carefully

I usually fly to Hollister (3O7) for night stop-and-go practice and
currency. No restrictions, no traffic, and runway 13/31 is long enough
for full stop and takeoff without taxiing back.

- Tom

B A R R Y wrote:
On Sun, 10 Dec 2006 22:34:39 GMT, wrote:

Most of Bay Area is highly noise sensitive and additional restrictions
apply at night.
For example:
RHV - no touch-and-go after 9 PM
SQL - no touch-and-go when tower closed
HWD - rwy 10L/28R closed when tower closed
etc. -- read A/FD and NOTAMs carefully

Right now, "night" starts ~ 1730 local time in many areas.

Plenty of time to fly at night while everybody's still open!

that's correct. I was able to get in a few quick touch-taxi-go night
landings at SQL not too long ago right around 6:20pm. Also PAO allows
night take off and landings. Remember for night currency you have to
land, then taxi back then take off again. Touch and go's don't count
for currency.

Gerald

"G. Sylvester" wrote in
et:

B A R R Y wrote:
On Sun, 10 Dec 2006 22:34:39 GMT, wrote:

Most of Bay Area is highly noise sensitive and additional restrictions
apply at night.
For example:
RHV - no touch-and-go after 9 PM
SQL - no touch-and-go when tower closed
HWD - rwy 10L/28R closed when tower closed
etc. -- read A/FD and NOTAMs carefully

Right now, "night" starts ~ 1730 local time in many areas.

Plenty of time to fly at night while everybody's still open!

that's correct. I was able to get in a few quick touch-taxi-go night
landings at SQL not too long ago right around 6:20pm. Also PAO allows
night take off and landings. Remember for night currency you have to
land, then taxi back then take off again. Touch and go's don't count
for currency.

Gerald


The FARs only require that you do a full stop. If the runway is long
enough, you do NOT need to taxi back. When I was based at SJC the tower
would let me use 30L late at night. With almost 10,000', it was no problem
to do a full stop and go.

--
Marty Shapiro
Silicon Rallye Inc.

(remove SPAMNOT to email me)

Marty Shapiro wrote:
The FARs only require that you do a full stop. If the runway is long
enough, you do NOT need to taxi back. When I was based at SJC the tower
would let me use 30L late at night. With almost 10,000', it was no problem
to do a full stop and go.

correct. I never thought about doing the touch - stop - go's (that's
better terminology I guess) at SJC. I dont' this is specified anywhere
but how high do you have to go for it to count as a landing. Can you
take off, stay in ground effect, land and stop?

Gerald