Night Flying

[Cameron Ramsey]

I too enjoy night flying. The sites and smooth air are hard to beat. However, in my older age of 41 and knowing that I have a wife and kids that depend on me, I hold my night flying to nights where there is significant moon light to help with hopefully finding a field in case of an emergency. I have seen nights with no moon that you may as well be in outer space and totally IFR and I won’t fly on nights like that. My only exception is if we sometimes fly over our little town during Christmas after everyone puts up their Christmas lights and then return to the airport.

[whee]

Speaking of EFIS, back when I flew a fair bit at night (which I too enjoy) sometimes I'd fly in C182s with a Garmin G1000. The black on the screen was way too bright, even when trying too adjust contrast and brightness to darken it. I'd turn it down to where I couldn't even make it out, turning it up enough occasionally to get a look. Even with it adjusted fully down, it would still hinder my night vision. At OSH for a few years I'd try different displays finding some worse than others but one would need to get in the dark with eyes adjusted to tell how good it might be. Since my future night flying will be a ways out I've given up for now. When the Bearhawk is nearing completion I'll get serious about it again.

Anyone find a unit with good blackness from current mix?

This is one of my problems I think. Even with the screen turned all the way down it is still too bright. While the EFIS has a lot of cool functions, most of which I don’t have a use for, I’m kinda wishing I’d gone with steam gauges.

It doesn’t sounds like anyone has any methods they have developed for night flying that I don’t use also. I just need to keep working on proficiency.

Thanks for the discussion.

[tailwind]

I also have problems with the Efis being too bright even when turned down to the point where you almost can’t see it. The Efis is the source of the light coming right back into my eyes. What I did that has helped a great deal is I installed two red led clearance lights from the local hardware in my cabin top. I blocked off all of the light that would shine back in my face. The only light aloud is shining on the panel. This lightning system has its own dimmer so that I can have more light in the cabin that does not shine in my face. This way my eyes can more easily adjust to the light from the Efis. This lightning system has also made it easier to move from the panel to the outside environment and back.

[whee]

I’m trying to understand what youdid because it sounds like it could help me sognificantly. So you have a red light that shines on the panel and the EFIS brightness is turned down but still bright enough to read. The red light shining on the panel helped make the efis seem not so bright?

[akb3]

Night flying for me is always IFR. “I Follow Roads”

[ThreeD]

FWIW

If you are flying through the mountains in Idaho like we do here in British Columbia then you really should treat it like IFR flying ....much,,,,,MUCH!!!!! different than flying night VFR on the prairies

I find that supplemental oxygen at night really helps my vision even at 6-7000 feet ASL.....legally we do not need to use it but the O2 makes it seem like a veil was lifted from in front of my vision at night.

Really important when the mountain peaks are 11,000 feet high .

I am not current with night flying as I sold my RV6 in the summer and my Pitts is day VFR only but I will be filing and flying IFR for the majority of my night flying through the mountains in my BH

Merry Christmas!

Dan

[zkelley2]

You could always install the FLIR with your grt.

[svyolo]

It has been a long time since I flew steam, but I remember it also being a tradeoff between too much light and killing your night vision. Too little light, and you might as well turn the lights off because you can't read the gauges. By far the best was a HUD, turned way down. You could still read it, it didn't kill your night vision, and it did wonders for keeping vertigo at bay.

If you want to experience real vertigo at night, you should try NVG's.

[nichzimmerman]

Great topic Whee. I always wear a LED headlight that has both white and red settings and also carry a flashlight around my neck for redundancy. Preflight the batteries. Have everything you might need (frequencies, approach plates, etc) at your fingertips.

You can fight the vertigo by developing a good instrument scan like you would do if flying IFR. That way a momentary loss of outside reference doesn't throw your senses off since you were just looking at the attitude indicator. I was reminded of this while flying on the coast of FL last year under an overcast layer. During a turn I lost all sight of lights on land and there was nothing in the windscreen but blackness. These were legal VFR conditions though.

Since having kids, i fly high and stay within glide distance to an airport. I don't trust roads at night because I would rather get tangled in trees than in power lines.
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[schu]

I remember doing my night cross country up in AK. My instructor and I decided to head to Talkeetna and I happened to pick a moonless night. Around Wasilla/Palmer it was easy to see the horizon with all of the lights. I didn't even really need a GPS to know where I was, but once we got 5 minutes north of Willow we were flying into complete black. Like disorientingly black. You know, like when you could be standing next to your friend, and you can hear him, but not see him, even a few feet away. Anyway, it was for all intents and purposes IMC.

I set the map on the GPS to show me the road, and we flew up the road knowing it's altitude, did the touch and go's and headed back. It was very educational, and from that point on I would only fly at night between Wasilla and Anchorage, and only if I knew exactly what was going on with the weather, and usually only on the way back from dinner or something.

Since I started flying my 170 I haven't done any night ops. It's not like my 150 where I can just set up for a shallow approach and wait for the ground to come to me, I really do need to see the runway to feel comfortable in a tailwheel airplane. On my bearhawk I'm going to install very bright LED lights (because I have them blinking all of the time for visibility purposes) which I'll be able to use to see the runway, then I'll probably take some additional instruction regarding night ops, or just wait until I start working on my IFR rating.

Night landings for me are like crosswind landings. I feel that it's an important skill to have because it's too easy to get caught in dimming or windy conditions when doing any amount of real cross country flying. I want to build up that skill before finding myself very much in need of it and doing it for the first time out of necessity, like when I had to do my first hand-prop in the middle of the Wrangell mountains.

[rodsmith]

My first night flight with an instructor was Merrill field to Kenai. It was an overcast winter night and as soon as we got over Turnagain arm it was like flying into a black hole, I felt a few moments of panic, but just got on the gauges and relaxed after a bit.

[jim.mclaughlin924]

I have always enjoyed night flying and am comfortable flying the airplane. I used to fly from Denver to the West slope, over the continental divide regularly at night. One morning I was flying a Piper Lance with 4 guys and fishing gear from Denver to Idaho when, just after sunrise, a gasket failed and I lost all the oil in the engine north of Rock Springs WYO over the red desert. This caused a runaway prop condition, best glide speed resulted in a 2500 fpm decent. A rod went thru the cowl and the windshield was covered in black oil. I was able to touch down on a short stretch of jeep trail, gear up.

No injuries,except the plane, but if this had happened 30 minutes earlier over the mountains in the dark it probably would have been a different story. Since then I avoid night VFR over the mountains ( single engine aircraft) and night IFR anywhere. It is kind of a risk/reward decision. I think the best you can do is just keep the airplane is good shape and do not do anything you are not comfortable with.

[zkelley2]

All these reasons is why I want a twin engine bush plane.

Someday maybe.

I think there is roughly no market for such an airplane since most GA pilots dont have a multi and if you dont fly often and maintain proficiency, the multi is far more dangerous.

But I want one.

[davzLSA]

speaking of twins check this out http://www.aero-news.net/index.cfm?d...e-5dbd0b9e6f7b

[zkelley2]

speaking of twins check this out http://www.aero-news.net/index.cfm?d...e-5dbd0b9e6f7b

I was thinking something more along the lines of a double ender. A metal winged double ender with the ability to carry something would be awesome.

[davzLSA]

like a c337?

[zkelley2]

Ya the double ender is in line thrust. The benefit being no Vmc. The downside is the rear prop is much less efficient in the prop blast. The air cam and the seabear have proven you can do a traditional twin with no Vmc as well provided you design for it. The air cam has the problem that it's a toy and not an airplane that can go places and carry anything getting there.

[Pbruce]

My two cents: Years ago I took many high-risk night flights in the mountains of B.C.,Yukon and Alaska (mostly medevac but sometimes honestly, taking the 172 to to visit my girlfriend for the weekend). It didn’t seem that crazy because I did it routinely. But I’m not recommending it, having survived when others did not. I was young and invincible then, as well as obviously lucky but now I’m none of those things. Incidentally, no-one I can recall died from engine failure over rough or remote terrain. It was usually CFIT, (controlled flight into terrain) or handling errors. There were some horribly close calls due to icing. I personally had a pitot tube freeze on a Piper Seminole (twin) in freezing rain and very nearly dove it into the ground before I realized that the blocked pitot was the reason for my decreasing airspeed. Would I do any of it again? Yes. In fact I’m still teaching single engine night flying in GOOD WEATHER, IN FLAT COUNTRY, with farms and lights. Or in a jet (or twin) with another pilot and a good autopilot. Rough terrain, single engine? Nope. I’ve used up all 9 of my lives, for sure.

Guys, there is night flying and then there is black night flying. My point is that flying over prairie in an area of lights or with a big round moon and maybe snow on the ground can be quite easy, and these are known elements before the flight. If you want or need them, then confine your flights to those areas, those days, and those hours. Otherwise it’s quite similar to cloud flying, as has been pointed out. My Bearhawk Patrol will have lights and I will definitely fly it at night; fly it like an old man though. It’s still an added risk, but not a large one in my opinion. I find no argument with any of the comments by others. We each have our level of knowledge, skill, and comfort.

I have a piece of advice I would like to pass on: A good headlamp with adjustable red and white light options is absolutely indispensable. Quality and adjustability makes a great deal of difference. I have a mountaineering headlamp from Mountain Equipment Co-Op (a premium quality outdoor store in Canada) and it works great, at a cost of about $65.00. It serves to provide great illumination of unlit or poorly-lit analogue instruments and switches and greatly reduces the “overbright” effect of looking at an EFIS screen which can’t be adequately dimmed or which has poor contrast when dimmed. Get a good one. Make sure it fits and wear it the whole flight. There should be no need to shut it off; just dim it as required. Our RV9 had a dynon 180 EFIS, a Garmin 796 GPS, and a few round dials, but no cockpit lighting. The headlamp was the essential piece of equipment. I taught my kids their night endorsements in that plane with confidence, but the headlamp was a no-go item if it wasn’t present and fully charged.

A strong aurora borealis event experienced from the cockpit of your plane is wondrous thing. I’ve also seen a rocket launch from Canaveral. Heck, even watching the moon come up while flying toward the eastern horizon is pretty amazing. There are cool sights seen, but do be careful. Respect your spidy senses

[Pbruce]

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