IFR in actual harder day or night?

bugsiegel

bugsiegel

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Bugsiegel
I'm a low time IFR pilot. No autopilot time at all and never seen IMC at night.
Is there a difference? Is it easier to commit to the instruments at night because there's no chance of seeing anything out of the window or is daytime easier because the panel is easier to see? I'm mostly talking about being in the clouds and not necessarily in the hard stuff.
Do you guys have a preference?
 
Night time adds an element of difficulty, especially if you aren't accustomed to it. I wouldn't recommend night actual IMC for a low time pilot. Although my first actual IMC solo experience was at night, and only about 2 weeks after I got my IR. Looking back, I shouldn't have jumped in like that but I was confident at the time.
 
I personally think night is easier. Turn off the exterior lights and turn up the panel lights, and you mostly remove seeing anything disorienting outside.

Breaking out on approach, night makes it much easier to see the approach/runway lights, especially at at minimums with low visibility. Good luck seeing anything at 1,800RVR with the sun in your eyes, but those high-intensity lights at night will illuminate the flight deck and let you get much lower for landing.
 
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Neither here nor there from a flying perspective. But at night it's harder to evaluate weather out the window or identify emergency landing sites in the event of an emergency, so the risk is higher. Night is often smoother, though.
 
I did a lot of my IFR training at night. I like it, it's usually smooth and there is less traffic and distractions.

I very much prefer night IFR to night VFR too.
 
HighFlyingA380 said:
I personally thing night is easier. Turn off the exterior lights and turn up the panel lights, and you mostly remove seeing anything disorienting outside.

Breaking out on approach, night makes it much easier to see the approach/runway lights, especially at at minimums with low visibility. Good luck seeing anything at 1,800RVR with the sun in your eyes, but those high-intensity lights at night will illuminate the flight deck and let you get much lower for landing.
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I've heard several high time pilots say the same thing. No personal experience though, due to my work schedule I rarely fly at night.
 
Definitely easier to spot the approach lights at night in low visibility.
 
Harder to see ice on the airframe at night.
 
I can tell you this, the only times I've had people disoriented enough to transfer the controls was at night. Wasn't even in the clouds. The one guy, we were doing a MA off of HXD. 090 and 2,000 for the climb out takes you out over the ocean. I remember thinking this is perfect for spatial D. Sure enough, after 2 prompts to climb and maintain heading, "f***! I'm disoriented...you have the controls."

I'd also say at night and in the clouds, you can get some ground lights reflecting off the bottom of the clouds that can cause a distraction. Besides the psychological factor of flying at night in actual, I don't see it as being really harder than day other than less options of seeing an emergency landing area.
 
One concern is what is the pilot going to do if the plane has an electrical failure and the panel goes dark (along with everything else).
 
Headlamp?


It's not much a difference, but I'd day night can be a little tuffer, especially landing/taxi at a new airport.
 
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coloradobluesky said:
One concern is what is the pilot going to do if the plane has an electrical failure and the panel goes dark (along with everything else).
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I was taught to carry a flashlight when I fly at night. That still leaves navigation, but a handheld GPS could handle that.
 
Also, its usually colder at night. Gets below 40, here comes the ice.
 
The first time you leave the strobes on at night entering cloud, is a new form of disorientation many haven't experienced.

As is a thin cloud that makes the outside so freaking bright your eyeballs water if you look up in the daytime.

Or in and out of cloud tops that darken automatic sunglasses and you have to dig in the bag for the clear ones.

Day and night both have pluses and minuses.
 
I much prefer night IFR as long as I've rested well before the flight. The darkness eliminates a lot of the daylight distractions for me. I'm fascinated by clouds & weather & tend to gawk outside the cockpit more.

I also, took my IFR training at night due to work schedule & have instructed a lot at night as a CFII.

Day or night, there are few things in life that are as satisfying as executing a well planned IFR flight with a landing at minimums.
 
Night presents its challenges. But like others have said, it's much easier to see approach lights.
 
I lost electrical in a Cherokee six one night in imc. Wouldn't recommend it. When we flew 310s ifr in the midwest we used flashlights to keep an eye on the airframe ice.
 
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I think night is easier, not sure why, though - sometimes a slower pace with ATC? Easy to spot traffic, too. The exception for me is if there is any/any chance for pop-up convective stuff.
 
Seems like the NTSB reports have their fair share of night IMC accidents, usually involving rather experienced pilots. I imagine going in and out of the soup at night can be extremely disorientating and really test your IFR skills.
 
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Night is fine if you are flying into a field with lots of lights but not so good if you are flying into a field that has nothing more then runway lights. I'm based at a small ( 2500 with displacements ) strip and won't fly into there at night unless the ceiling is above pattern altitude.
 
One word of advice. DO NOT FORGET TO TURN ON THE RUNWAY LIGHTS WHILE ON APPROACH IN ACTUAL.

Sucks to pop out at minimums only to see black.

I was flying into some western Colorado mountain airport one night. We decided to make an anouncement on CTAF even though we knew there was no way anyone else was up (solid IFR in mountains in a snow storm). Anyway, glad we did. There was the airport workers with snow removal trucks on the runway. Had we just continued in through the frozen soup, we would have had quite the surprise after popping out. Complicated missed too.

Anyway, turn on your runway lights before the FAF and make CTAF calls.
 
HighFlyingA380 said:
I personally thing night is easier. Turn off the exterior lights and turn up the panel lights, and you mostly remove seeing anything disorienting outside.

Breaking out on approach, night makes it much easier to see the approach/runway lights, especially at at minimums with low visibility. Good luck seeing anything at 1,800RVR with the sun in your eyes, but those high-intensity lights at night will illuminate the flight deck and let you get much lower for landing.
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I've only done it once, but I kinda agree. You start seeing the lights shortly before busting out of the clouds. Of course, I was in metro Atlanta. Not sure how it would look in some rural area.
 
To us Cirrus guys - it doesn't matter. Set nav mode on the G1000 and wake me up before the IAF :)

Wait for it.... and here it comes....
 
EminiTrader said:
To us Cirrus guys - it doesn't matter. Set nav mode on the G1000 and wake me up before the IAF :)

Wait for it.... and here it comes....
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Does the G1000 have an alarm clock feature? :wink2:
 
If I were going to set up my airplane for night IFR I'd get one of those battery operated dome lights for $25 and glue it or velcro it on the ceiling somehow. Then just bop it to turn it on. That would help. I suppose you could wear a headband flashlight, I dont like those.
 
I was sleeping but it sounded like "vertical track".
 
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