Flight Following and Pilot Controlled Lighting

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Kbedinbound

Filing Flight Plan
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Apr 10, 2017
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Kbedinbound
On a recent night xc, I was on flight following to a pilot controlled field with a 3,000 foot hill on my course to the airport (thus, the beacon was obstructed until over the hill). The pilot departing the field in front of me was kind enough to "leave the lights on" but my question is, what do most of you do while on flight following? Do you request a momentary frequency change to key the lights, or just advise beacon in sight and then switch over?
 
If your aircraft is equipped with two radios, you can always listen to your controller on one and the CTAF on the other, then swap over to transmit on the CTAF and hit the button a few times while never leaving your controller's frequency. Just remember to always know which radio you're transmitting on.

It's the same way you got the weather at your station (you did that before needing the lights, right?) You listened to the weather on your second radio, why not swap it over to CTAF and hit the lights? Only difference is that you swap over to transmit on the second radio rather than just receive.

If you've only got the one radio, you can request to change frequency to get the weather and you can hit the lights for the first time. Just remember to reference the frequency you wrote down to contact the controller again and let him know you're back with him.

Lastly, if you're close enough to your airport you could cancel flight following since you should be monitoring and/or talking on the CTAF anyway at that point. Then just hit the button to make the lights stay on.

You have options! Do what feels safe and makes sense to you.
 
Ha. Yes, almost the definition of a dumb question. I had the ATIS at the destination and was monitoring CTAF but had also just been on with Center, so looks like I was just fixated on where the mike was tuned.
 
What James said about 2 radios.

Also, if the airport is surrounded by terrain, be sure to maintain appropriate safe altitude until you can safely descend.

What is a safe altitude? A "trick" is to look at the Instrument Approach Procedures for that airport. This can be valuable information even for VFR pilots, providing minimum safe altitudes, final approach course headings, and what minimum altitude you should be at a specific point on final to remain clear of obstacles.
 
If you have a Garmin 350c audio panel you can set it to use both and use the PTT on the right yoke to turn the lights on.
 
Thanks, yes, terrain was definitely in mind. I was at 4500' and I've been into the airport in daylight so I knew (and planned again) that it is fairly clear on the back side of the hill as long as I stay above pattern altitude, but obviously can't begin decent until the field is in sight if I'm planning to cross at mid-field to join/fly the pattern for RW2. Field is at 488' --- and the traffic around the VOR gets crowded so was trying stay close'ish to the VOR but not too close due to the ILS into RW2. Always something to learn, think through again.
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AU_James said:
Lastly, if you're close enough to your airport you could cancel flight following since you should be monitoring and/or talking on the CTAF anyway at that point. Then just hit the button to make the lights stay on.
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An additional note on this point. You really should monitor the CTAF before hitting the light switch. Maybe worse than the common practice of talking before listening is turning up those brightest lights while some other pilot is on short final.
 
midlifeflyer said:
Maybe worse than the common practice of talking before listening is turning up those brightest lights while some other pilot is on short final.
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Reminds me of arriving at night to the lights on low intensity. After two or three attempts of clicking to try for medium intensity, I got an annoyed voice on frequency, "Hey buddy! Low is all you're ever gonna get. You can quit clicking."
 
Wait until you go into an airport where the CTAF and PCL freqs are different.
 
Only a problem if the other pilots aren't adequately geared up... (yes I'm kidding)
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Go on the second radio and turn them on. If you only have 1 radio ask for a quick frequency change.
 
What...what am I missing?...if you are close enough to an uncontrolled airport to need to see the runway light you should have had a frequency change and have been making position reports long ago on CTAF. I hope you are not rollin into an uncontrolled filed unannounced.
 
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