Do you fly at night?

[DEWATSON]

I fly at night only when I launch while dusk and the flight will end within an hour. The risk of flying at night is much greater than daylight flight, but I think it is as safe as IFR flight to get on top, etc. Hard IFR in a single engine airplane does not interest me at all.

[brian]

Originally Posted by Jaypratt

I do not plan night flights.... But,,,

I will plan an early AM departure 20 30 minutes before sunrise usualy first light.
Rarely,,, come in after dark, dusk.

Read Dougs safety article, and live long...........................!

Same here - I will have the plane ready for takeoff 1/2 hr before sunrise, if I want to get an early start. I land no later than 1/2 hr after sunset.

When I was a student pilot, I did night flights and thought nothing of it. As a more experienced pilot, the idea of a forced landing at night is, to me, like trying to land wearing a blindfold, with probably similar results. Same with flying over Lake Michigan to get to Oshkosh - I did it going both ways as a fresh pilot, but now I fly around it, via Cleveland & Chicago.

If I was returning home and almost there, and thus flying over terrain I am very familiar with, AND clear skies and a moon, I might possibly push it to 1 hour after sunset.

It's not the night flying or landing that I have a problem with - it's the idea of a forced landing.
brian

[Ironflight]

Everyone draws their personal risk line in a slightly different place based on all of their life experiences to date, what they have learned, what they have heard, and what they have read. I don't mind flying night VFR in a single - I have done it all my life. I don't like the idea of myself flying night IFR in a single - it just crosses my personal risk line at this time, because there is so little chance to find a place to set down - like that interstate highway that John mentions.

When I look at my logbooks, I find that I flew a lot more at night when I lived up north (shorter days). the truth these days is that I have very little reason to start a flight after dark unless I am headed home because I sleep at night....

Early morning departures are wonderful when you get to watch the sun rise!

[dmaib]

I voted "rarely" for all of the reasons many have listed here. I do try and keep myself night current. That usually means picking a nice moonlit night, going out to the airport and getting my three full stop landings. I am definitely more conservative about single engine night flying than I was as a young man. We plan our trips for daylight hours, so rarely have the need to be out there after dark. But, if it happens due to unforeseen circumstances, I weigh the "risk vs. reward" and if I am comfortable, I will do it.
I file IFR on almost all of my cross country trips, but feel the same way about serious IMC as I do about night flying. Rarely and cautiously! It is a struggle to really maintain IFR currency, especially single pilot.

[randyintejas]

Almost 1/2 of my 600 + hours are at night. Calm sky's and even calmer air waves make for a sweet ride!

[Pat Stewart]

Single engine at night should be found in the dictionary unders "suicide"

[Kenny Gene]

I voted yes, I'm IFR and now have the FLIR night camera, (also Avidyne TAS600 active traffic, weather, 4 AveoMaxx LED landing lights, built in MH oxygen, and more in my RV10) BUT that doesn't mean I always enjoy flying at night, sometimes, yes, sometimes no. When it's dark, it's amazing all the "new" engine noises or miss either in your mind or you "hear",,
I fly my 10 (previously 7a, Bellanca Super Viking and 172) for business and pleasure so dark will catch you, evening meetings, ball games, and school activities so I stay current. Dark is Dark in sparsely populated area's (like Kansas and New Mexico) however I avoid mountains, like east of KDVT at night.
I'd guess about 35% of my over 3,000 hrs over the past 25 years are night flights.
Stay current and stay safe.
Kenny Gene

[Daniel S.]

This is a very interesting poll for me. I guess learning to fly up in Ohio, it really never phased me flying in IMC at night... I have never even really (until i read these reponses) thought of night flying as more or less scary /risky, it was just part of learning to fly in the northeast. Still to this day, I prefer filing IFR plans no matter the wheather or time of day. Looking at my log book, about 60% of my 123 hours IMC time was at night in SEL... Mind you that most of that time was in a college flight school maintained aircraft, which never made me question added risk of night VFR/IFR. I practiced emergency proceedures religiously and always had an "out" plan. When my RV is done, I think I'll probably have even more faith in my self-maintained AC. I did quite a bit of A&P apprentice time at my college flight school. I'll leave this a bit open ended, but my main reasoning for building is that I know my personal level of attention to detail as compared to those I worked with / learned from working on certified SEL AC following a step by step instruction book. Please don't take that the wrong way, I'm in no way shape or form discounting anyone elses work or ratings. I just think I'll fly my RV a LOT at night and or IMC. Another good question for this poll would be to see how many night hours, & IMC hours RV folks truely have.

[RV10Man]

I'll do the 1/2 hr before & the 1/2 after sunset thing, but don't do much night flying at all anymore.
I dropped a valve in the 172 on the 2nd leg of a "round robin" cross country one time. 1800 tta&e. The first leg was early in the morning, before sunrise. The 2nd leg was just barely daylight, had been in the air for about 20 mins.
Almost full of fuel and 4 of us (each under 170 lbs) in the airplane, could JUST maintain altitude. Made a safe landing at a real airport. All ended well.

[scsmith]

I voted no, but like many others posting here, I will occasionally end up returning to home base within an hour after sunset, or depart before sunrise.

At those times, you have diminshed light, but enough to figure out a place to land.

Its kind of like crossing big mountains like the Sierra. You can accept the increased risk for a small percentage of the total flight. The odds of something going wrong in that particular 20-minute stretch are small compared to the overall odds of failure. So thats the line I draw. I reallhy do my best to be home before dark. In over 2000 hrs of total flying time, I have 15 hrs of night flight in my log book.