Putting on my aviation safety hat for a moment, I need to chide you guys for turning this into a joke. We have been fortunate that BAD THINGS have not happened, but as you know these are the kinds of events where BAD THINGS are more likely to happen because we want to look good in front of an audience of our peers. I personally think the night ops were/are/will be a mistake. "Hey bubba, watch this..."
And now, back to our regularly scheduled program...
I understand Ken, and Tony and I have said do not attempt this yourself. I think most people are a little bit uneasy coming into Gaston's the first, second, or maybe even the twentieth times, for some people. However, having done night landings at another field that I am intimately familiar with, I knew exactly what I was to expect. While I don't know every single tree at Gaston's like I do at my field, I know exactly where I need to be, at what altitude, where the turn needs to be made, etc. I make my turns well inside the bluff - ask anyone who's been up with me in my plane there - so that was a non issue. I fly my downwind over the powerlines that run along the ridge and cross the rivr to the south - so that is also a non issue. Other than that all that needs to be worried about is some trees and altitude. While there wasn't 80,000megapixel resolution on the approach, there was plenty of contrast between the grass and the trees. While still above the goalpost the landing light (at least in my plane) shines on the grass and really starts to improve the depth perception on how far above the runway you are. Though having just set my altimeter to BPK, I already knew that bit of information. From there it was center the plane between the goalposts and let it fly herself to the runway, and make a normal night landing.
I'm not trying to make it sound like a non event because I certainly don't want anyone else attempting it, especially those that have any bit of discomfort during the day at Gaston's, but honestly,
in my plane it really was a non-event,
for me. Plus, I had two outs - BPK and FLP - if it ever got uncomfortable. I will say that I would rather make that same landing a thousand times than shoot the GPS approach into Garrett, MD and go missed again like I did last year on the way to Adam's.
This isn't a "hey look what I can do" sort of thing. But I will make the offer to anyone who wants to go up with me - at 6Y9 or at 3M0 next year - and show that it can be done successfully without greatly magnified risk.
But, that set's pretty low.
