P

Paul Walter

Active Member
Hi Group. I have been considering a night licence for some time. In Australia we have a different system to the US, here night rating is a seperate endorsement and is not obtained when you get your private licence.

I would never take off during the night but want it for the odd time i am late home and get caught out afetr last light.

I no longer have my 7a and now have a 6. I am wondering the differences with landing at night and indeed if it is any more complicated in a tail wheel. I sort of have it in the back of my mind that the landinding lights wont be of any use during the 3 point attitude upon landing but this is probably just me.

Any thoughts appreciated.

Paul
 
Paul,

Back in my pre-tailwheel days I thought that night landings or landings from an instrument approach would be harder in a tail-wheel aircraft. I haven't really found that to be the case.

How well the runway is lit would depend on your landing light(s) and the aiming of such. I have one light on the left side aimed for tailwheel attitude and it works fine.
 
Night

I have the left one aimed at the touchdown zone on approach, the right one is aimed for taxi in the tail down attitude. Of course the left one is aimed quite a bit high while on the ground.
 
I have the left one aimed for taxiing with the tail down and the right one straight out for landing. This works well for me.

I found no difference between night and day landings, mine all stink!

Seriously, it all comes down to how much TW time you have and how good you are at landing. The exact same as a tricycle geared airplane.
 
I have no tailwheel-specific experience, so I can't help there...but oddly enough, when I did the required night time for my private, my night landings were invariably squeakers...which is more than could be said for some of the day landings.

I still don't understand this, really...but in any case, good luck. Maybe you'll find it as anticlimactic as I did.
 
N546RV said:
I have no tailwheel-specific experience, so I can't help there...but oddly enough, when I did the required night time for my private, my night landings were invariably squeakers...which is more than could be said for some of the day landings.
I still don't understand this, really...but in any case, good luck. Maybe you'll find it as anticlimactic as I did.
Click to expand...

The reason that your night landings are more consistent is that at night you are always using the same references, the runway lights.

Daytime you unconsciously use many different references.

At least that's my theory. And it's worth just what you paid for it.
My night landings are always more consistent, and better.
 
Doesn't matter at night

No matter tricycle or taildragger.... At night, once you flare you'll sub consciously use your periferal vision to reference the runway edge lights, not look over the nose. I anticipate your night landings in a tail dragger will be "greasers". But, like you, I minimize that risk by only planning day flights.
 
I have found the runway edge lighting to be the most powerful aid in night landings. I've never found the aircraft landing lights to be of any particular use because I'm not looking at the runway surface. I've had "good" HID lights and "no" lights on my airplanes - I don't notice much of a difference. I'm of the opinion that little airplane lights are only good for taxi and anti-collision.
 
Lots O' Light

I fly quite a bit at night. Up until a year ago I had Duckworks LE lights with the HID bulbs. They were inadequate at best.

Last year I put in the Aveo 6 in 1 lights in the tips. What a dramatic difference. I even flew a few patterns with the runway lights off and was amazed at the difference. They threw enough light to easily light up the center all the way to the edge. No lighting issues now!!

As far as the tail dragger, I see no real issues. I think the natural tendency is to come in a little hotter so focus on nailing your airspeed. And, for me, I tend to flare a little higher at night and have to hold the attitude a couple of seconds longer.

Take offs are take offs and there is no real difference between day and night.

Get your night ticket and enjoy it. Fun stuff.
 
Plus 1

Toobuilder said:
I have found the runway edge lighting to be the most powerful aid in night landings. I've never found the aircraft landing lights to be of any particular use because I'm not looking at the runway surface. I've had "good" HID lights and "no" lights on my airplanes - I don't notice much of a difference. I'm of the opinion that little airplane lights are only good for taxi and anti-collision.
Click to expand...

Agree strongly.

Also, night landings are often better because we give ourselves more distance to get it "on", which is usually a good thing. Many night landings have softer, smoother wind conditions.

Dale
RV6a
 
Hi Paul,

When I used to teach night flying, what I would show students concerning the landing light (very poor lighting at best on a C152/172) is that on very short final, the beam would illuminate the touchdown zone but when flaring, that beam would shoot most of its light in the distance and at that time, the focus should be on looking in the distance for the runway edge and end lights.

And even on a tricycle gear, if you hold the flare long enough, you're lighting the sky unless you have a dedicated beam aiming downwards. But you won't (shoudn't) be looking there in the flare...

In fact, for training and demonstration, I made sure that a least one night landing was made without aircraft landing lights to simulate a failure.
No big difference once in the flare...

Night landings are more often greasers mainly because of much quieter air.
I love night flying for that !!!
 
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