Thursday, December 23, 2010

Night Flying

My wife twisted my arm to get night current again. She wanted to try looking at Xmas lights from the air. So it was time to go out night flying in our airplane, our Cessna 182.

A couple years ago I had fun getting more night time for my commercial certificate. It happened during the Christmas time, and it was fun looking at Xmas lights. Night flying is pretty cool with air being calm (usually), less crowded airspace, and things being very pretty with lights.

So this night currency made me think that I should make a list of things to think about when getting night current again. Or maybe it can be things people think about when they are new to it. This is not a full list, but are things that came to mind that I like while I was flying last night.

Day(s) before: Night Flying
  • Check all lights before the flight if possible; so they could be fixed: interior panel lights and exterior lights.
  • Find good flashlights to bring for inside cockpit. More than one.
  • Bring approach plates if IFR rated. Review IFR refresher notes.
  • Have inside organized and thought out. It will be harder to find all the controls in the dark and better to know where everything is with using the flashlight minimally. Maybe take a picture of the inside of your airplane and think it through; here is a picture of my inside panel, but every plane is a bit different.
  • Know where heat and other controls are for passenger comfort. It will be colder.
  • Think ahead where you will be flying; know altitudes; know obstructions/towers; know freqs. It is way easier on the ground in the daylight to think about this.
  • Remember FAA regulations for nighttime currency. (Night is 1 hour after sunset, 1 hour before sunrise; Need 3 full stop landing and takeoffs within 90 days; Nav lights need to be on from sunset to sunrise).
  • Know how to turn lights on at airports you will be going to. Usually 3,5,or 7 clicks on mike.
  • Have a handheld radio if possible at least to turn on runway lights in an electrical emergency.


Taxi: Night Flying
  • Do IFR taxi checks even if not IFR rated (airspeed correct, AI flat and zeroed out, Altimeter correct, Turn Coordinator turning, DG adjusted and not precessing, VSI at or near zero)
  • Turn on your navigation lights; check and remember where the switches are.
  • Click on the airport runway/taxi lights.
  • Taxi light use only now.
  • Use the taxi center lines. It is hard to tell correct spacing to parked planes. Be real cautious of wingtips and any other planes/buildings.
  • Notice color of airport lights and where to go. Blue is taxi, white is runway edges.
  • Exit the runway onto the taxiway watching for path between two parallel rows of blue lights
  • Practice taxi backs instead of just stop&goes. That needs practice and you will feel better with the practice. Also, it gives you the entire runway for takeoff.

Takeoff: Night Flying
  • Normal Takeoff stuff
  • Landing light on
  • Look outside but also use AI, DG, airspeed when departing upwind. (As you take off you are pointing high, the runway lights are behind you and likely will not have much horizon to see. My wife commented last night about this. It is disorienting if you are not prepared.)
  • Climb near Vy, but not below.

Cruise: Night Flying
  • Beautiful and smooth flying usually. Lots to look at, but always be the pilot and not just site seeing.
  • Normal Cruise stuff: LCGUMPS and other mnemonics
  • Landing light off? Maybe keep Taxi light for extra visibility. Definitely all other lights.
  • Watch for planes. Edges of eye is best.
  • Watch engine gauges. It will feel better to know your plane is operating well. (It is strange, but psychologically the engine will sound different at night. You hear every change in tone in the engine sounds. )
  • Remember to check Voltage or Amp gauge. Very important at night since you need lights.
  • GPS helps tremendously but be prepared if it goes out.
  • Know where you are on a map and relation to roads/cities.
  • Always guess where you think the airport is.
  • Turn on the runway lights and see if you are right.

Landing: Night Flying
  • Normal landing stuff including LCGUMPS
  • Turn on appropriate lights including landing light.
  • Be prepared to turn the airport lights back on if it has been a while since you first activated them or click them again just to be safe they will stay on.
  • Remember the runway edge lights are a little above the ground and remember not to flare to early or late.
  • Use glide slope (right on preferably, never on low side.) It is harder to judge the right angle at night, so a VASI glide slope indication helps a lot.
  • Make your approach perfect. I like turning final about 400' above the field.
  • Flaring at night can be challenging, so I like to use an approach similar to a float plane glassy water landing. I have read about it, but not actually done a real float plane landing yet. I dream of getting a seaplane rating. But the glassy water landing sounds good and I read somebody else did it too. They do it when it is difficult to see where water level is
  • Land with some power
  • Land with appropriate airspeed, not to fast or slow. Too fast or too slow will make flare harder.
  • Land with flaps so you are slow and pointing down more on approach
  • Level out parallel with the ground when getting close to landing.
  • Nose higher as you get close to landing but leave some power until main wheels touch
  • Pull power when the main wheels are on the ground
  • Basically a soft field landing too. Don't bother with the short field unless you are a confident night flier. Longer runways are your friend at night.

General Nighttime Flying tips
Know where your hills and antennas are. Avoid them. Leave the mountains for the daytime. Bright moon can help make things easier and more comfortable; it will light up the ground a bit. Also, stay near roads, cities, and lit up areas. Night time flying in dark areas counts as actual IFR, so stay away from that unless IFR rated.

Get some IFR training if you don't have it. It will help in general and be good for unexpected entry into clouds or dark areas

I found these other websites with some other good tips:
http://www.aopa.org/asf/hotspot/articles/5079.html
http://www.avweb.com/news/airman/190849-1.html

Pictures

So I went up two nights ago to get current again and had fun with both the practice and the site seeing. Then again last night. I found an awesome house from the air and then went and found it on the ground. I never would have found it otherwise. Go check out your area for houses; it is fun!

Xmas House Lights Aerial

We got lots of other pictures too..

Denver Xmas Lights Aerial
Downtown Denver with the baseball field at the bottom. It is surprising how the skyscrapers blend in with everything. It is very pretty and hard to capture in pictures.

Denver City Building Xmas Lights Aerial Our Denver City and County building is lit up at Christmas time. Very pretty as well.

Summary

Go out and have fun, but be careful. If you are nervous at all or are learning, take an instructor. Most instructors love night flights.

/Brian

13 comments:

AFP said...

I love flying at night. Since I spend most of my time flying during the day, I start to get used to the unique viewpoint that flying gives. However, the view while flying at night still seems new. Excellent tips as well. You definitely want to be prepared when flying at night.

Nate Duehr said...

Hi Brian,

Glad you got some night flying in. Nice photos of the Christmas lights! Our bird is getting some minor avionics work done, should be out of the shop shortly... but this ridiculous cold WX means it'll probably be the end of the week before we go "fetch" the airplane from the shop... :-)

One thing to note, "night" flying is the time from end of civil twilight to the end of it the next morning. This is when "night" time is logged.

But, the "one hour" after sunset to "one hour" before sunrise is in the night *currency* requirements to carry passengers, and no mention of the word "night" is given in that regulation. So you were correct in saying that, but only for purposes of currency.

Civil twilight is from sunset to the sun being six degrees below the horizon, which is roughly only 1/2 hour.

Gotta love the FAA. They can't ever make it easy. :-)

So technically you can be "night flying" and logging it before it's late enough to count the takeoffs and landings for "night currency".

And the other trap... night currency requires both takeoffs and landings. Some folks blast off before it gets dark, make three landings, and put the airplane away, without having made three takeoffs in the "dark".

Want to get really weird? The Air Almanac has corrections available for altitude... Heh...

Sunrise/sunset times change once you're far enough aloft, of course.

Which leads to the other trap... pilots will fly to an airport near sunset thinking it's "plenty bright out here still" and as they descend, the airport is in darkness. Ooh my... "it got dark!"... heh... no, they just got lower...

And with mountains to the West blocking the sun... when is sunset around here? (Ha.)

Goofy stuff, isn't it?

Nate Duehr said...

p.s. Oshkosh this year? Might as well start planning now! ;-)

I'm headed out to the Cessna Pilot's Assn. Cessna 182 Systems and Procedures class in March... they haven't done one for a couple of years, so when I saw it hit the calendar this year, I decided I should go.

Might look at that too, if you can swing it.

Flights for Travel said...

Well that is really impressive trip, and credit goes to your wife obviously :) and picture take are really good one and after seeing this I also thinking to have a ride with you. What if some one asks me about a night journey?

Vietnam Travel Agent said...

I would say, beautiful photography. Very nice scenes.

BWI said...

Thanks for sharing your experiences here on your blog --- I enjoyed this post, and I'm looking forward to more.

Parking said...

Thanks for sharing your experiences here on your blog --- I enjoyed this post, and I'm looking forward to more.

market research said...

awesome experience and nice photography.....
Aerospace Market Research

Anonymous said...

Brian, My wife & I are considering buying a 182 or a 172/180 conversion.
Being "club" flyers we a general idea of yearly costs which your earlier bold was most helpful. Of course a 182 will be a wee bit more expensive than a 172/180. My concern is with the fuel bladders and their inherent risks ie: water,leaks,etc. Are they a sore point and are they expensive to replace. Your advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks,,Frank
Peekskill, NY

mike said...

Just been getting back into flying and haven't done any night flying yet. Does seem to be an experience worth doing though as the views will be stunning. Especially at sunrise.

Unknown said...

nice post. I am a pilot training student and i am very happy to see this type of blogs.
Thanks.
CPL Student

AJ said...

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AJ said...

Hello Brian. I can see that you did put in a great deal of work into writing this post and all the rest of them on your blog. The only way such great posts are possible is because you have the passion, and the dedication. I also noticed that the CFI Training line item in your bucket list is not clickable. I am guessing that's that way cause you already bagged it! :-) Here is a link of what I do - CFI Academy.