I flew my RV9A to Toledo OH this past Sunday, this was my first official long solo night flight , the original plan was to fly to Minneapolis from Brookhaven NY , night stop at Toledo Express then continue in the morning to St Paul / Minneapolis , my first fuel stop was Williamsport PA, KIPT , which im sure most of you know ( Lycoming County ) .
I took off at 16:00 local time , which was roughly one and a half hours before the beginning of night and darkness , the overall flight was smooth , eventless , the aircraft and equipment performed very well except for some ADSB out and GPS issues , autopilot flew it all the way until I was over the airport , which I only saw in my GPS and I couldn't visually identify and I didn't even see the airport beacon.
The approach controller asked if I had the airport in sight , I looked again I saw lights which I thought was the airport , I honestly wasn't sure , I was hesitant , however I told the controller I have it in sight , he handed me off to the tower , the tower asked me to report turning final runway 12 , I flew for 3 minutes past the airport then turned around to 120 degrees. , I still wasn't sure if I had the airport in sight , I was looking at what looked like REIL's and headed there for landing , I genuinely thought I had the runway , but again I wasn't 100% sure , when I looked at the charts earlier I saw the highest obstacle was 700feet so I decided to keep it at a 1000 , sure enough when I got closer to those red lights , it turned out I was heading to two giant towers , made a shallow left turn then I saw the runway to my left , it was very confusing , but I learned not to ever land anywhere at night before having the runway in sight , especially if you go to an airport with older equipement and dimmed lights , landing was uneventful , refueled , took a breath , then continued to Toledo .
The next day wasn't very promising , a snow storm was in the forecast , with a one hour window (between 11am and noon ) to get out before the system worsens , I left the RV at National flight services overnight in a heated hangar and headed to the Hotel.
The next day , I woke up at 6 am , looked outside and it was snowing , I kept checking the weather for a window of opportunity , the weather was much nicer west of Toledo , but there was noway for me to beat this snow storm , the window of opportunity vanished as the day progressed , at this point , I decided to leave the aircraft in the warmth of the hangar , rented a car and drove for 9 hours to Minneapolis , made it to my meeting , and came back the next day to Toledo , the National flight service People took a good care of my bird , they cleaned the canopy and refueled it , to my surprise , my bill was only $181 , me coming from New York , I thought I was going to leave my pants there for 3 days of heated hangar and 17 gallons of Avgas !
I was ready to roll around 14:00 local time , the first portion of the flight was very Smooth , at 5500, as I got closer to KIPT ( fuel stop ) weather started building , scattered towering clouds everywhere , I asked for higher which I got , climbed to 7500 to avoid clouds and ice , about 50 miles before reaching KIPT , I encountered heavy turbulence , god knows how many times my head hit the canopy , I disconnected the Auto pilot and slowed it down to 120 knots , I was being thrown all over the place , I could not even read my instruments , the ATIS was calling for wind gusts of 31 knots , checked surrounding areas and it was pretty much the same situation , I decided to land and everything I learned flying with Vlad ( N666BK ) kicked in , I survived the landing, took a break , refueled then continued to New York , surprisingly , no clouds after KIPT and the weather was very stable at 7500.
The approach to Brookhaven was ok , overcast @5000 scattered at 4 and 3000 respectively , I found a couple of holes I used to descend , it was already dark ,
I was on final runway 24 , about 1/2 a mile to landing , looked at my airspeed then looked up , the airport disappeared !!! what the #@(#$&???!! the lights went off ! I tried to turn them back on clicking 5 times then 7 times the airport lights were still off ! I went around to attempt the landing a second time , this time I asked in the frequency if anyone could turn the lights on for me , someone did , landed , hangared the plane , and I headed Home after 4 days away , it was an amazing solo experience ,You definitely learn something new with every flight , and you get to know your airplane better as you fly it .
I do not think I will ever fly VFR at night again. or at least I will not land without a instrument approach !
I took off at 16:00 local time , which was roughly one and a half hours before the beginning of night and darkness , the overall flight was smooth , eventless , the aircraft and equipment performed very well except for some ADSB out and GPS issues , autopilot flew it all the way until I was over the airport , which I only saw in my GPS and I couldn't visually identify and I didn't even see the airport beacon.
The approach controller asked if I had the airport in sight , I looked again I saw lights which I thought was the airport , I honestly wasn't sure , I was hesitant , however I told the controller I have it in sight , he handed me off to the tower , the tower asked me to report turning final runway 12 , I flew for 3 minutes past the airport then turned around to 120 degrees. , I still wasn't sure if I had the airport in sight , I was looking at what looked like REIL's and headed there for landing , I genuinely thought I had the runway , but again I wasn't 100% sure , when I looked at the charts earlier I saw the highest obstacle was 700feet so I decided to keep it at a 1000 , sure enough when I got closer to those red lights , it turned out I was heading to two giant towers , made a shallow left turn then I saw the runway to my left , it was very confusing , but I learned not to ever land anywhere at night before having the runway in sight , especially if you go to an airport with older equipement and dimmed lights , landing was uneventful , refueled , took a breath , then continued to Toledo .
The next day wasn't very promising , a snow storm was in the forecast , with a one hour window (between 11am and noon ) to get out before the system worsens , I left the RV at National flight services overnight in a heated hangar and headed to the Hotel.
The next day , I woke up at 6 am , looked outside and it was snowing , I kept checking the weather for a window of opportunity , the weather was much nicer west of Toledo , but there was noway for me to beat this snow storm , the window of opportunity vanished as the day progressed , at this point , I decided to leave the aircraft in the warmth of the hangar , rented a car and drove for 9 hours to Minneapolis , made it to my meeting , and came back the next day to Toledo , the National flight service People took a good care of my bird , they cleaned the canopy and refueled it , to my surprise , my bill was only $181 , me coming from New York , I thought I was going to leave my pants there for 3 days of heated hangar and 17 gallons of Avgas !
I was ready to roll around 14:00 local time , the first portion of the flight was very Smooth , at 5500, as I got closer to KIPT ( fuel stop ) weather started building , scattered towering clouds everywhere , I asked for higher which I got , climbed to 7500 to avoid clouds and ice , about 50 miles before reaching KIPT , I encountered heavy turbulence , god knows how many times my head hit the canopy , I disconnected the Auto pilot and slowed it down to 120 knots , I was being thrown all over the place , I could not even read my instruments , the ATIS was calling for wind gusts of 31 knots , checked surrounding areas and it was pretty much the same situation , I decided to land and everything I learned flying with Vlad ( N666BK ) kicked in , I survived the landing, took a break , refueled then continued to New York , surprisingly , no clouds after KIPT and the weather was very stable at 7500.
The approach to Brookhaven was ok , overcast @5000 scattered at 4 and 3000 respectively , I found a couple of holes I used to descend , it was already dark ,
I was on final runway 24 , about 1/2 a mile to landing , looked at my airspeed then looked up , the airport disappeared !!! what the #@(#$&???!! the lights went off ! I tried to turn them back on clicking 5 times then 7 times the airport lights were still off ! I went around to attempt the landing a second time , this time I asked in the frequency if anyone could turn the lights on for me , someone did , landed , hangared the plane , and I headed Home after 4 days away , it was an amazing solo experience ,You definitely learn something new with every flight , and you get to know your airplane better as you fly it .
I do not think I will ever fly VFR at night again. or at least I will not land without a instrument approach !