I love flying at night

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UngaWunga

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UngaWunga
After all the winds we've been getting up here recently, tonight was pretty calm. Went up for some night currency, did a short CC to another field with better lights than home field. Air was smooth, could see a ton of stars even with the moon out. A great night to be up flying. Red led cabin light help a ton, too. Flight back was excellent. I do have trouble finding the airfields in the dark, especially with all the other ligths out there. I have the tendency too look too far out, and get surprised when I click 5 on CTAF and I'm suddenly 1-2 miles from the airfield. Oh... there it is. :lol:

But that's why we practice, isn't it.
 
nice... i don't fly enough at night. need to get out there...best time for me to fly
 
Especially with it getting dark up here at 4:45 these days, night flying is a hoot. I haven't done any real long XC at night, but if the weather is good, heading down the east coast at night would be pretty cool.
 
Flying at night can be magical. This country boy likes flying over Big Cities, seeing the lights on the ground and watching the airliners fly in and out.

At home, though, it's a different beauty, the lights of towns popping up and the interstate twin lines of scattered white lights coming and red lights going.

Traveling at night is just as nice, complete with much silence on the radio. I think my longest Night XC is about 3-1/2 hours. Weather often calms down, too, but it can be difficult to see clouds ahead with an overcast. But I flew many night hours before getting the Instrument Rating.
 
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I love flying at night. I really love flying at night in a turbine or multi-engine.

I wouldn't love trying to land off airport at night.
 
Mostly calm winds, little traffic, cool temperatures. What's not to like?
 
Hell yeah, night flying even though you have to be more observant is still the most relaxing and enjoyable.
 
I love it too. I'm a night guy by nature though. I've flown night checks, and now bid as much night as I can. I have *almost* as much night as I do day. At one point I had more.
 
I started my flying in a 172 then got a Decathlon. I loved flying those planes at night. After the Decathlon I moved into high performance biplanes which killed my night flying. A few years back I was missing it and went out and bought a 172 again mainly to fly at night and cold days. I wish my Cub was legal for night, that would be awesome!
 
TommyG said:
Hell yeah, night flying even though you have to be more observant is still the most relaxing and enjoyable.
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Its sooooooo much easier to see other planes at night, it's silly. Strobes, no strobes, still very easy to see. Love it.

There were a few planes in the pattern at the airport we went to last night. Some other people working on night currency, some doing some IFR training. Easy to pick them out before hearing their position reports.
 
Flying at night is awesome but......

as a single engine guy the thought of a forced night landing gives me the heebie jeebies.

Luckily those thoughts don't really diminish my enjoyment of night flying, they just reduce the percentage of time I spend flying at night. :)
 
I love night flying too. Scared the crap out of myself maybe 6 weeks ago at night, did a cross country flight, could see the moon on the horizon and stars ahead of me but there must have been a small patch of higher clouds with rain or virga that I flew through. Rain hitting the airplane sure sounds like aluminum being crushed and that'll give you a shot of adrenaline like no other :D
 
I loved it so much I had almost 60 night landings when I got my PPL heh..the DPE couldn't believe how many of those I actually had done.

I still put in a lot of night time for training since it's the only time I can fly during the week, but it definitely is nice to go up there for fun once in a while.

I found myself checking-in with ATC sometimes after a long while of silence just to make sure the radios were still working. Amazing how during the day you can't get a word in and during the night you have to talk to keep them awake :)
 
Caramon13 said:
I found myself checking-in with ATC sometimes after a long while of silence just to make sure the radios were still working. Amazing how during the day you can't get a word in and during the night you have to talk to keep them awake :)
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Try flying near an airport with a lot of cargo activity :wink2:
 
Hank said it right as it is magical! I used to fly over the mts at night and follow Rt 40 just in case. Mt flying at night was fun, not much on lights but the stars were also magical!
 
Traffic is easy to spot at night but difficult to determine distance. Is that a far away aircraft with HIDs or a nearby plane with dim lights? ADSB in/out does make things easier in identifying potential conflicts.
 
I like night and in my single guy days I flew it a lot, but I do consider it a slightly higher risk level. Now that I fly with my family I find that I just prefer day flights.

I think it boils down to engine-out options and how to mitigate that risk. This is really where WAAS GPS has made a difference and I think SVT could make an even bigger one. Out west there are roads, particularly nice straight section and county roads, everywhere. You can see them during the day but you cannot see them at night. Highways are unlighted and often sparsely traveled by cars. But all that looks like a giant ocean of blackness from the air at night. So my love of night flying is tempered by the risk of night off-airport landing.

Section roads don't show up on sectionals but county roads usually do. County roads may have power lines next to them that do not appear on the sectional (unless they are the tall high-voltage ones) but the roads are generally wide enough that you could still probably avoid those.

So my plan has always been to fly high in hopes of being able to glide to an airport, otherwise use GPS and spiral down over the straightest and longest road I can find on the map then set up a long final, flip the lights on and hope for the best. This would not work as well back east where the roads aren't straight (as much) or in the mountains. But if SVT displayed roads then that would mitigate it even more by combining roads with terrain. Sane pilots don't fly "in" the mountains at night without carrying a spare engine or a turbine. They might - maybe - sky over them but even that is sketchy.
 
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I enjoy short night flights,I try to avoid flying over mountains at night. I am always checking for possibility of ground fog forming while flying.
 
UngaWunga said:
Its sooooooo much easier to see other planes at night, it's silly. Strobes, no strobes, still very easy to see. Love it.

There were a few planes in the pattern at the airport we went to last night. Some other people working on night currency, some doing some IFR training. Easy to pick them out before hearing their position reports.
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I generally agree, but my one new-underwear-requiring NMAC experience was at night.
 
Could happen at any time. I still say better chance of seeing another plane at night.
 
Most of my flying nowadays is at night, I enjoy it, just when the sun start coming up it kinda sucks, it reminds your body it shouldn't still be awake.
 
I always found pilotage easier at night. I could pick out towns and towers and airports so much easier. I could also *usually* spot airplanes easier, although they sometimes still be tough over big cities when below the horizon. Strobes help a lot but they weren't as common (or required) 20 years ago. Leaving LED landing lights on also helps get you spotted although I think strobes and navs are sufficient.
 
I love flying at night. :)

The only thing that scares me are the nightmares afterwards. More then ones I woke up in the middle of the night, everything pitch black and no sound at all... :eek::hairraise: It usually takes a while that I lay in bed and everything is fine and that we don't have an engine out during the night flight... Intersting part is that Oliver had the very same dreams at the same time... :D
 
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