Night Rating
Joined: Jul 2003
Aviation Qualifications: PPL
Posts: 257
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From: Canada (Southeastern Québec)
I've been flying at night for years. While the landing light definitely helps (and it's illegal to carry pax without it in Canada), you'd best learn how to land without it as well. They have a nasty habit of burning out at the wrong time.
The technique used when the landing light is out is not unlike that used for glassy water landings in a float plane. Sort of feel your way down in a slight nose-up attitude. Usually not an "impress the passengers" landing but one from which you can exit alive with an airworthy aircraft.
Beech.
The technique used when the landing light is out is not unlike that used for glassy water landings in a float plane. Sort of feel your way down in a slight nose-up attitude. Usually not an "impress the passengers" landing but one from which you can exit alive with an airworthy aircraft.
Beech.
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 631
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From: Dagobah
I wont fly single engine at night anymore, not worth the risk if you ask me. I know of two good friends who had engine failures at night, one was lucky-survived, and the other...mising for 6 weeks until his body washed up.
Oh, and the last thing I said to him was... 'whats the chances of an engine failing at night?'
choose wisely...
Oh, and the last thing I said to him was... 'whats the chances of an engine failing at night?'
choose wisely...
Joined: Nov 2001
Posts: 939
Likes: 1
From: UK
Assuming the runway lights are on then the trick is to flare with normal picture from the end lights and then avoid ballooning by pulling back just enough to slow the sink. You'll connect with runway when the edge lights in your peripheral vision seem to be about shoulder height as you sink into the black abyss masquerading as a runway!
Why do it if it's not fun?
Joined: Jul 2001
Posts: 4,782
Likes: 12
From: Bournemouth
First trick when landing at night is to turn the landing light off. Much easier to learn to land without a landing light.
Approach the runway as normal (but, unlike during the day, it's acceptable to use the PAPIs for guidance in a light single). As you cross the threshold, shift your vision to the distance as usual, and wait for the correct picture in your peripheral vision before starting the flare.
The correct picture at night is a little different to during the day, though, because you have to use the lights, rather than the runway surface. As you get closer and closer to the runway, the lights will start to rise in your peripheral vision. When they rise to the level of your ears (sounds weird, but it works), start to flare, aiming to keep the lights at the level of your ears until the aircraft settles onto the runway.
Only once you've got the hang of this should you turn the landing light on. The big mistake everyone makes with the landing light is to stare at it - and hence start to flare when the light begins to illuminate the surface of the runway. Depending on the strength of your landing light, this is guaranteed to either be too soon or too late.
The correct technique for using the landing light is to totally ignore it, and use exactly the same visual cues as you used without it.
I disagree with Beech Nut, though, regarding the similarity with a glassy-water landing in a float-plane. A glassy water landing is carried out with power, with the last stages of the approach flown with a very nose-high attitude, and this results in a very long float. It is designed to be used when there are no visual cues as to your height above the runway. This might work on a long runway, but try doing this onto a short runway and you'll end up in trouble! The technique for night flying, IMHO, is the same as day-flying except for different visual cues.
I love night flying. Of course it is more risky, but for me the reward is worth the risk. Good luck!
FFF
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Approach the runway as normal (but, unlike during the day, it's acceptable to use the PAPIs for guidance in a light single). As you cross the threshold, shift your vision to the distance as usual, and wait for the correct picture in your peripheral vision before starting the flare.
The correct picture at night is a little different to during the day, though, because you have to use the lights, rather than the runway surface. As you get closer and closer to the runway, the lights will start to rise in your peripheral vision. When they rise to the level of your ears (sounds weird, but it works), start to flare, aiming to keep the lights at the level of your ears until the aircraft settles onto the runway.
Only once you've got the hang of this should you turn the landing light on. The big mistake everyone makes with the landing light is to stare at it - and hence start to flare when the light begins to illuminate the surface of the runway. Depending on the strength of your landing light, this is guaranteed to either be too soon or too late.
The correct technique for using the landing light is to totally ignore it, and use exactly the same visual cues as you used without it.
I disagree with Beech Nut, though, regarding the similarity with a glassy-water landing in a float-plane. A glassy water landing is carried out with power, with the last stages of the approach flown with a very nose-high attitude, and this results in a very long float. It is designed to be used when there are no visual cues as to your height above the runway. This might work on a long runway, but try doing this onto a short runway and you'll end up in trouble! The technique for night flying, IMHO, is the same as day-flying except for different visual cues.
I love night flying. Of course it is more risky, but for me the reward is worth the risk. Good luck!
FFF
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Joined: Jul 2003
Aviation Qualifications: PPL
Posts: 257
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From: Canada (Southeastern Québec)
I guess it depends on what you fly. I own a Beech C-23 that loves power-on approaches and is a basically a brick$hitouse with wings otherwise. It also, if you use the correct approach speeds (75 knots, two notches of flap or 70 knots, 3 notches), tends to float in a nose-up attitude for quite a while, before stalling out and plonking down. It's not really a short-field aircraft.
YMMV, mine is an aerobatic certified model and has greater horizontal stab surface area than the non-aero models, which have a reputation of plonking down on the nosewheel instead.
I personally try to avoid marginal runways at night. My own home field is 5000' long, which hardly qualifies as "short" for a light single, plus it has PAPI. So I have lots of room to get it right.
I agree with the comments on not staring at the landing light. A sure killer of nose gear...
Beech (C23 and 77).
YMMV, mine is an aerobatic certified model and has greater horizontal stab surface area than the non-aero models, which have a reputation of plonking down on the nosewheel instead.
I personally try to avoid marginal runways at night. My own home field is 5000' long, which hardly qualifies as "short" for a light single, plus it has PAPI. So I have lots of room to get it right.
I agree with the comments on not staring at the landing light. A sure killer of nose gear...
Beech (C23 and 77).
Last edited by BeechNut; 4th November 2005 at 00:35.
Joined: May 2001
Posts: 1,909
Likes: 24
From: England
I love flying at night. It's so much smoother and pleasant. In a funny kind of way you see so much more at night (or realise it). Especially in and around London.
However, in this country it is made so damn difficult it really annoys the hell of out me. The CAA won't approve remote transmit switch operated runway lighting ( bloody
), so for most GA airfields you need to be a member of a club, and then arrange and sometimes even pay! for someone to switch the lights on for you.
Had a situation a while back where someone switched on the lights too early and went off home. At 4 miles the lights were on, 2 mile final and the scariest blackout ever!
.
However, in this country it is made so damn difficult it really annoys the hell of out me. The CAA won't approve remote transmit switch operated runway lighting ( bloody
), so for most GA airfields you need to be a member of a club, and then arrange and sometimes even pay! for someone to switch the lights on for you.Had a situation a while back where someone switched on the lights too early and went off home. At 4 miles the lights were on, 2 mile final and the scariest blackout ever!
.
Joined: Jul 2003
Aviation Qualifications: PPL
Posts: 257
Likes: 0
From: Canada (Southeastern Québec)
They should rename themselves to the PAA: Prevention of Aviation Authority.
Virtually all non-airline fields in Canada have remote transmit switch operated lights (or ARCAL as we call them, Aircraft Radio Control of Aerodrome Lighting), including my home field.
You DO have to remember to click 5 times though. One chap a couple of winters ago came in with his 172 on the light cycle activated by the previous flight. He forgot to activate the lights and was met with a blackout on short, very short final (like just before the flare). He clipped a snowbank and flipped the plane. Walked away with the need for a change of shorts, but the plane was written off. Waste of a perfectly good plane.
I've been caught myself once. The only solution is to reactivate in a real hurry if you have the time, if not, an immediate go-around.
Beech
Virtually all non-airline fields in Canada have remote transmit switch operated lights (or ARCAL as we call them, Aircraft Radio Control of Aerodrome Lighting), including my home field.
You DO have to remember to click 5 times though. One chap a couple of winters ago came in with his 172 on the light cycle activated by the previous flight. He forgot to activate the lights and was met with a blackout on short, very short final (like just before the flare). He clipped a snowbank and flipped the plane. Walked away with the need for a change of shorts, but the plane was written off. Waste of a perfectly good plane.
I've been caught myself once. The only solution is to reactivate in a real hurry if you have the time, if not, an immediate go-around.
Beech
Joined: Jun 2003
Posts: 564
Likes: 0
From: Over Mache Grande?
Not quite related, but took my wife up for her first night flight yesterday - spent an hour flotaing around Milton Keynes and Northampton.
It really is the most beautiful thing yo can do - it's more floating than flying!
Anyone thinking about getting a night rating, do it, do it, do it!
It really is the most beautiful thing yo can do - it's more floating than flying!
Anyone thinking about getting a night rating, do it, do it, do it!
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 631
Likes: 0
From: Dagobah
Yes I said "do it, do it, do it" to my best mate, and now I have his death on my concience, not my fault of course but there we are...
of course the chances are small, and I also love flying at night, but I will not encourage anyone else to do anything in an aeroplane anymore.
Be safe
P.S I accept the original question was not should I or should I not fly at night, but rather reference points when flaring. Individual choices and all that.
of course the chances are small, and I also love flying at night, but I will not encourage anyone else to do anything in an aeroplane anymore.
Be safe
P.S I accept the original question was not should I or should I not fly at night, but rather reference points when flaring. Individual choices and all that.
Last edited by youngskywalker; 5th November 2005 at 15:11.
Joined: Jun 2003
Posts: 13,787
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From: EuroGA.org
Flying at night is wonderful, but.......
The last thing I will do is argue for any reduction in privileges in what has already got to be the most ridiculously tightly regulated activity humans can do, but I would not allow anyone I care about to fly at night unless they were able to fully fly, navigate, and land on instruments (practically, not necessarily legally).
Unless one sticks to local bimbles on very clear nights, it's easy to get into IMC en-route. Kennedy anyone? It's also easy to end up over countryside where there is nothing lit-up, and even where there are lights they often bear little relationship to the size of the village/town one is expecting to be there. Especially late at night when street lights get turned off.
Few PPLs come across these things because few of them fly "properly" at night. Most PPLs pop up for a local, just after the official night time when there is still plenty of daylight, often just to get the required logbook entries. Most airfields aren't open late enough anyway, for the last remnant of daylight to vanish.
Proper night flight is pitch black, basically solid IMC. Nothing to see below, no horizon. 100% instrument flying, 100% instrument navigation. Dead reckoning (the official nav method taught in the PPL) is even more useless than at any other time.
I can fly at night and have all the logbook entries including the FAA PPL and IR cross country requirements which as it happens were done at night and in IMC, but unless I have to get home etc I don't do it by choice because there is no point in closing off the chance of survival in the event of an engine failure. It's a bit like flying, VMC on top or in IMC, over mountains covered in cloud; I've done plenty of it in a single but would not do it by choice. At least with mountains, provided one is well above, one can use the GPS terrain data to glide into a valley and bottoms of valleys are usually clear of cloud. But at night, unless it is a very bright one.....?? One may as well fly over water with no life raft.
The last thing I will do is argue for any reduction in privileges in what has already got to be the most ridiculously tightly regulated activity humans can do, but I would not allow anyone I care about to fly at night unless they were able to fully fly, navigate, and land on instruments (practically, not necessarily legally).
Unless one sticks to local bimbles on very clear nights, it's easy to get into IMC en-route. Kennedy anyone? It's also easy to end up over countryside where there is nothing lit-up, and even where there are lights they often bear little relationship to the size of the village/town one is expecting to be there. Especially late at night when street lights get turned off.
Few PPLs come across these things because few of them fly "properly" at night. Most PPLs pop up for a local, just after the official night time when there is still plenty of daylight, often just to get the required logbook entries. Most airfields aren't open late enough anyway, for the last remnant of daylight to vanish.
Proper night flight is pitch black, basically solid IMC. Nothing to see below, no horizon. 100% instrument flying, 100% instrument navigation. Dead reckoning (the official nav method taught in the PPL) is even more useless than at any other time.
I can fly at night and have all the logbook entries including the FAA PPL and IR cross country requirements which as it happens were done at night and in IMC, but unless I have to get home etc I don't do it by choice because there is no point in closing off the chance of survival in the event of an engine failure. It's a bit like flying, VMC on top or in IMC, over mountains covered in cloud; I've done plenty of it in a single but would not do it by choice. At least with mountains, provided one is well above, one can use the GPS terrain data to glide into a valley and bottoms of valleys are usually clear of cloud. But at night, unless it is a very bright one.....?? One may as well fly over water with no life raft.
Joined: Sep 2003
Posts: 0
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From: UK,Twighlight Zone
night flying is ace. we dont have PAPI, our runway lights are made from garden lights and we can switch them on at 5 clicks of the PTT.
Most of my hours in the winter are night flights, quite a few hundred of them and the donk keeps turning so ignore the I wont fly a single at night merchants and make the most of it!
Most of my hours in the winter are night flights, quite a few hundred of them and the donk keeps turning so ignore the I wont fly a single at night merchants and make the most of it!
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 631
Likes: 0
From: Dagobah
Fair point, I wouldnt dream of trying to stop anybody doing it... but see how YOU feel when you encourage a good friend to fly at night, and tell them how safe it is, they then kill themsleves cos the donk' stops over water in the pitch black...!!!! happens, that's life. Be aware of the risks is all I'm saying!
The chap asked for "any other tips for flying at night"...and I gave him one, don't do it!
Take it or leave it I couldnt care either way!
May the force
The chap asked for "any other tips for flying at night"...and I gave him one, don't do it!
Take it or leave it I couldnt care either way!
May the force
