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VFR Night Flight

Sibirsky

Well Known Member
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 use the synthetic approach feature for most every night landing at new airports (and some day ones just to stay fresh). Very easy to get confused at night and in unfamiliar locations. Rather than shy away from night flight, take it as a chance to get more comfortable with it - personally it is my favorite time to fly since it's generally smoother air and less radio chatter.

Chris
 
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Personal limits

I'm too chicken to fly at night in a single engine airplane, how can you see where to make a safe forced landing if the fan quits?
 
Sounds like an adventure

ForeFlight has a nice capability to add the traffic pattern entry to your flight plan and the moving map. You select and load it to flight plan through the procedure button like an IFR approach. Pick the runway and pattern entry and it will add it to your moving map. I find this quite useful when coming into an unfamiliar airport. It will get you in close to the airport and in the right position for a landing.
 
I'm too chicken to fly at night in a single engine airplane, how can you see where to make a safe forced landing if the fan quits?

Quite simple really. When you get close to the ground, turn on your landing lights. If you don't like what you see, turn them back off.
 
For those that are interested in trying out the pattern entry tools of ForeFlight, be sure to upgrade to v12.10.1 or newer, as the previous version had a bug in it that would sometimes cause an incorrect pattern entry.
 
your trip sounds hair raising to me. glad you made it thru. Winter weather flying in Ohio, especially Northern Ohio can be tough.

I don't like flying at night and avoid it if possible but sometimes you are on your way there and it becomes night so you need to be ready for it. when at night you need to be prepared to go full instruments at any time and I always use the GPS runway extension lines and get on it. going to Savannah for the first time it became night and it was very difficult the find the runway with all of the orange glowing lights around. if I had not selected the GPS runway extensions I would not have found it. or simply fly the IFR approach if you are qualified.
 
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Quite simple really. When you get close to the ground, turn on your landing lights. If you don't like what you see, turn them back off.

That brings back memories of my PPL training. My instructor laid those same words on me during my night training and a simulated engine out scenario we did. I decided right then and there that I was never going to fly at night when I got my PPL and I never have.
 
Maybe I have a minority opinion here, but I love night flying. Living at the latitude that I do, night starts at 5pm and lasts until 8am at this time of year so night flying creates a lot of opportunity for getting flights in. I love the smoother air, less traffic and the views. Spotting traffic is so much easier too.

I will say that this applies for familiar airspace, not likely that I will ever fly anywhere at night that I haven't been to during the day.
 
In my younger days I loved night flying - but now I treat it as an IFR operation only.
 
Night currency

Bit of a hassle staying night current, but I always get my night landings in before heading out on a long cross country. When the schedule doesn't go as planned and the last half hour of your flight turns out to be after sundown it really helps to be able to continue; as long as, conditions are good and the destination airport is well lit. John
 
Night Flying

Night flying is wonderful, but I'm in the same camp with single piston engine. I'm building my RV8 night VFR capable, but never plan to use it. Only as the out for delays and such that push the arrival past sunset. The intentional night flying I'll leave to the day (night?) job.
 
My first 135 job you had to start in the cherokee 6 before you could move up to the Cessna 402. 8 hours a night in that single.

20 years later looking back and I don't fly single engine night anymore. Not worth the risk. Survivability is way too low for me. I also don't fly IFR over or through less than 1,000 ft cloud layer. If I have engine trouble, I don't like only having a short time from the bottom of the clouds till impact to have a chance to maneuver.
 
If you fly at night, please have a back up artificial horizon, airspeed, and altimeter---just in case.:eek::eek:
 
Maybe I have a minority opinion here, but I love night flying. Living at the latitude that I do, night starts at 5pm and lasts until 8am at this time of year so night flying creates a lot of opportunity for getting flights in. I love the smoother air, less traffic and the views. Spotting traffic is so much easier too.

I will say that this applies for familiar airspace, not likely that I will ever fly anywhere at night that I haven't been to during the day.

I, too, prefer night flying and wish the private pilot curriculum included higher requirements for it. I've heard some people make the argument that an instrument rating should be required for night flying....while I don't agree with something that draconian, I absolutely believe that one should experience the "black hole illusion" on a night flight with an instructor present to assist. It's eye-opening to students, for sure.

I haven't used the pattern-assist feature on FF before, but I religiously use the OBS-mode on the GPS any time I'm going to an airport I don't know. I've found that to be a wonderful tool. Although the newer GPS navigators give you a hatched extended centerline, I've found having the OBS mode lined up once I've got ATIS and I'm within 10 mi or so of the airport drastically improves my SA.
 
I, too, prefer night flying and wish the private pilot curriculum included higher requirements for it. I've heard some people make the argument that an instrument rating should be required for night flying....while I don't agree with something that draconian, I absolutely believe that one should experience the "black hole illusion" on a night flight with an instructor present to assist. It's eye-opening to students, for sure.

I don't think this has been mentioned in this thread, there is a large difference between Canada and the US regarding licensing for night flight.

In the US you gain the privilege to fly at night with your PPL and this includes 3 hours of night training and 3 hours of flight with reference to instruments only. I don't think solo night time is required, at least the Wikipedia article doesn't mention it.

Here in Canada a PPL does not include a night rating but includes 5 hours of instrument time. The extra night rating requires 10 hours of night flying, minimum 5 dual and 5 solo. It also requires a total of 10 hours of instrument time, that can include the PPL hours.

The number of landings required (10) is the same for both although Canada allows touch and goes and are required as solo. The night cross country requirement is a littler higher in Canada, 2 hours compared to 100 NM in the US.

That is significantly more training for night flight in Canada and I don't think you could deny that based on this alone, Canadian pilots with their night rating are much better equipped for night flight than American pilots with their night privilege from their PPL. While 10 hours of instrument time isn't a lot, that's 7 hours more than is required in the US.

Maybe this explains the general dislike/disuse of night flying mentioned in this thread.
 
Love night flying

I love night flying. And at our latitudes, daylight is quite short these days...


Generally: Less traffic, smoother air.


One has to do a more thourough weather breifing as visibility/ceiling lowering can be harder to detect in flight.


And as Claude said in the previous post, the night rating is far from automatic in Canada. And on top of the 10 hours of instruments and 10 hours night flying, we have to do a minimum of 5 nighttime take-off/landings each 6 months in each type of aircraft to have passengers on board.


Helps keeping current...
 
, we have to do a minimum of 5 nighttime take-off/landings each 6 months in each type of aircraft to have passengers on board.
.

Here in the US it’s similar, 3 t.o./landings every 90 days at night, although just any airplane, not each type.
NTSB data shows the night fatality rate is much higher than the day rate. But, genuine engine failures (not running out of gas!) cause fewer fatalities than during the day. The main issue is running into things you can’t see. Mountains, hills, power lines, etc. I still remember the Southwest 737 that made a night visual approach to a drive in movie theater - and survived after its vertical stabilizer hit a high tension line. The other issue is spatial disorientation in ‘black holes’. As others have mentioned, both these issues should be solved by having an instrument rating and abiding by ifr minimum altitudes. I too love to fly at night - but approach it with some caution.
 
With respect to the OP, the disorientation at IPT is somewhat concerning to me. I fly in and out of IPT on occasion. There is a mountain 1500 ft above the airport on the south side by only 1.5 miles, and high ground on the north side. Not knowing for sure where the airport is and maneuvering low for landing there could be a perfect CFIT situation.

Glad you made it safely.
 
IPT Williamsport PA

Runway 27 and 30 are right traffic. You would need to be quite a ways north for terrain to be an issue at traffic pattern altitude. The area just to the south was the site of a fatal Allegheny crash, I think a Convair. Probably in the 50's.
 
At night an overhead approach is preferable to any airport you are unfamiliar or an instrument approach.

If you are flying at night an instrument panel is important imho.
 
Instrument flight

Some countries, Australia I believe being one, there is no such thing as "Night VFR". Once the sun goes down, all flying is IFR with the instrument rating required.

Australia, also like Canada has a lot of sparsely settled and uninhabited areas. It's so black out there on a moonless overcast night that it is no different than IMC. Often the only way to see if one is even in a cloud is to turn on a landing or taxi light.

A full moon flying over beautiful farmland with a lit up house or barn every mile is a whole different world, and quite beautiful.
 
Go to CFINotebook.net and look at Overhead Approach Maneuver

Can use Radio Nav Or Gps or both to align with the runway. If actively towered they will call your turn and allow the approach. If uncontrolled you can maintain altitude and call your break KNOWING you are where you need or want to be confirming all points.

Easy to get it wrong at night in unfamiliar surroundings.
 
Some countries, Australia I believe being one, there is no such thing as "Night VFR". Once the sun goes down, all flying is IFR with the instrument rating required.

Australia, also like Canada has a lot of sparsely settled and uninhabited areas. It's so black out there on a moonless overcast night that it is no different than IMC. Often the only way to see if one is even in a cloud is to turn on a landing or taxi light.

A full moon flying over beautiful farmland with a lit up house or barn every mile is a whole different world, and quite beautiful.

Australia has night VFR, but it requires training and a rating (which I hold).

The training is essentially IFR enroute with visual approach and departure procedures. You typically come out of it with a GPS-RNAV rating on your endorsement.

My training included IFR LSALT (which are required for night VFR in Australia), MSAs from IFR enroute charts, using IFR approach plates to extract guidance for safe approaches at night under VFR, not descending below LSALT until you're within 3 nm of the destination, all that good stuff.

It also included air exercises where my instructor caused me to become exposed to the various perceptual illusions that kill people at night (the leans, somatogravic illusions during acceleration and deceleration, the depth perception illusions that cause undershoot to black hole runways without visual glideslope guidance)

It made me a better pilot. I use most of those techniques to some extent when I'm flying day VFR now.

- mark
 
I logged a few hundred hours of night cross country in piston singles. No issues until I flew through a flock of geese one dark overcast night. By the time I realized what the flashes of light and shapes going past the canopy were I was out the other side. By grace and very good luck not even a scratch or any bird sh1t. It certainly did cause a flood of adrenaline. I normally prefer bright moonlight in the winter with snow on the ground. And now I avoid night flying in migratory bird season.
 
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