bret
Well Known Member
I can't remember if it was Paul or some one else who said, no night flying for them and a whole other set of no no criteria. So, this week end.........I planed a trip to see the parents in Norther Ca. from the Tahoe area. I have made this trip many times before in the day light but......The original plan was to leave 10 min before sun rise, weather and pre flight all good to go, but, we ended up departing a lot earlier, (military training, I hate to be late), so, as we were gaining altitude to clear the mountain range, and the city lights of Carson City disappeared behind us, I began to notice how dark is was becoming, as in, no definitive line of the horizon. On board, we have a 6 pack, 430 and Wing X. I felt confident and in control until we encountered severe turbulence over Truckee and for another 30 min. I was finding myself recalling the instrument training (many years ago) of flying actual IMC. I was telling myself, this is bad, finding it very difficult to maintain heading and altitude with the severe up and down drafts taking us all over the place and trying to maintain critical terrain clearance. I did not anticipate that I was going to have to rely totally on the instruments for this VFR....night flight.
My back yard IS the Sierra Nevada Mt range and home to the Nevada triangle. A real bad place to play if you are not familiar with it. I do fly and play here all the time....with sunshine.... I don't think I will be doing this flight again in the dark.
The reason for this post is, I had my beautiful daughter with me and I let my guard down to keep her safe. I should have never done this flight.
So why did I think it would be ok to do this flight? All of my earlier flying was in the LA basin, going to Big Bear and all over with lots of CITY LIGHTS, there is your night horizon.
So, has any one else got caught up in a situation you THOUGHT you were prepared for, but not? Funny thing is, you don't know, until after it happens. With this story I hope that my fortunate ignorance might help some one think before a night flight.
My back yard IS the Sierra Nevada Mt range and home to the Nevada triangle. A real bad place to play if you are not familiar with it. I do fly and play here all the time....with sunshine.... I don't think I will be doing this flight again in the dark.
The reason for this post is, I had my beautiful daughter with me and I let my guard down to keep her safe. I should have never done this flight.
So why did I think it would be ok to do this flight? All of my earlier flying was in the LA basin, going to Big Bear and all over with lots of CITY LIGHTS, there is your night horizon.
So, has any one else got caught up in a situation you THOUGHT you were prepared for, but not? Funny thing is, you don't know, until after it happens. With this story I hope that my fortunate ignorance might help some one think before a night flight.