Originally Posted by
Gordy
It is actually easier at night. Back in the 90's I flew between Kauai and Oahu once at night and back during daylight hours. One cannot see your destination during the day, but at night you can see the glow of Oahu..... This was in an Astar with only a compass for navigation....no GPS etc....
One night (many moonless nights ago) I was flying my little R22 across the SF Bay from San Carlos to Hayward. Both were reporting "clear below 12,000" and yeah the lights of the East Bay made for a very nice clear target to aim for (didn't even have to turn on my gps
).
Then at one point somwhere near the middle I got to experience the most trouser filling two seconds of my life (at that point) when those lights disappeared and the windshield went black. Seems I had passed through a wisp of a cloud.
So yeah, I guess it is easier at night,...to go right into a cloud you didn't know was there!
For what its worth, I have flown over the open ocean during the day when I couldn't see any land in any direction (due to how low I was flying to try and avoid a much stiffer headwind higher up). That was in an R22 Mariner (with a gps so old all I had was a number to follow) and I'll take that over not being able to see the clouds in my path any day of the week!
