night currency

MAKG1 said:
Spotting one, especially in the city, can be difficult. Especially KRHV. The street next to it is so much brighter than the runway lights, that the chart supplement has a warning not to line up on it.
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Tip: Not sure about KRHV specifically, but usually one could ask the tower to turn up/down the lights and that will help distinguish the airport.
 
asicer said:
Tip: Not sure about KRHV specifically, but usually one could ask the tower to turn up/down the lights and that will help distinguish the airport.
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If you know the landmarks, it's not too hard to find. But if you just aim for the dark spot, you have a 50% chance of landing in Cunningham Lake.

I doubt the lights can be cranked up brighter than Capitol Expressway. They are just MIRLs, and the expressway is BRIGHT.
 
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MAKG1 said:
If you know the landmarks, it's not too hard to find. But if you just aim for the dark spot, you have a 50% chance of landing in Cunningham Lake.

I doubt the lights can be cranked up brighter than Capitol Expressway. They are just MIRLs, and the expressway is BRIGHT.
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I was speaking more to the change in brightness. Seeing several thousand feet of lights suddenly grow dim tends to stand out.
 
asicer said:
I was speaking more to the change in brightness. Seeing several thousand feet of lights suddenly grow dim tends to stand out.
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Maybe, but I doubt it. I'm not kidding, the expressway lights are really bright. The runway lights are also fairly directional. You can see them from downwind, but not a lot further in that direction.

And it's barely 3000 feet, not "several thousand."

Something that can help is to fly one of the instrument approaches.
 
MAKG1 said:
Dark spots can also be lakes and mountains.
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For sure... but if you know where the airport *should* be roughly then looking for a dark spot can help get your bearings as a young student and make out the beacon, etc. My CFI also mentioned what @skier noted, and as a young student on my first night XC it was helpful advice. Growing up and seeing all the bright runway and taxi lights you naively assumed assume that an airport would brilliantly stand out.. so they can be hard to find for a first timer, but if you use the "dark spot" as a clue then at least in my case I was able to find the rotating beacon and other features, etc. much more easily
 
ircphoenix said:
What's REALLY fun is when the lights are on, and then they time out and turn off on final.
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Funny, something kind of similar happened on one of my last night flights, but it was as I turned base to final that the runway lights went out. I had the comm already keyed up so a few clicks and they were back on.. was pretty cool seeing everything go out then come back on actually

and it reminded me of one of my favorite scenes in Airplane, in fact @Timbeck2 has it as his avatar.. so it made for a little chuckle to myself when they all went out
 
The fully equipped Cirrus has an IR camera. No runway lights are really needed with it as you can see clouds and ground at night, including the runway.
 
citizen5000 said:
The fully equipped Cirrus has an IR camera. No runway lights are really needed with it as you can see clouds and ground at night, including the runway.
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Which can fail, and probably should on your next flight with a CFI at night...

"Oh bummer... all your toys went dead. Land the plane gadget freak..."
 
asicer said:
Tip: Not sure about KRHV specifically, but usually one could ask the tower to turn up/down the lights and that will help distinguish the airport.
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Flying VFR into Fullerton at night (which can be harder to spot than RHV do to the surrounding city and has zero "dark spot") from and my not usual familiar direction tower clears me to land quite a ways out for a straight in approach. A bit later over the radio the conversation goes like this...

"Sklyane 12345, Fullerton Tower...do you have the field in sight?"
"errr, got the beacon, still trying to make out the runway, 345"...
"Here, I'll turn up the flashers to full"
"Oh, over there, got it. Thanks!"
"Still #1 cleared to land runway 2-4"

Then I discovered the Extended Runway Centerlines feature on Foreflight!
 
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Be careful and have some emergency out options. Here in my area, I can fly about 350 miles in most directions (except south Mexico) at night without problems. All of the highways around here are free of power lines and there's just enough vehicles to light the highways for an engine out. Because of summer heat, a lot of my hours are night time IFR (I follow roads) - 700 total with 100+ at night. Main concern in my area are mountains ... using VOR radials or MEAs works well to stay clear.
 
I was landing in the Kansas City area on the third at night one time. I was on an extended downwind when large fireworks started going off at and above my altitude on both sides of the plane. At that point they were not ho-hum. They sell large fireworks to the general public in Missouri and Texas. I've never had a big urge to see the fourth from the air since then.

I also got to make my first night landing in my Cardinal RG without a landing light. Everything was working fine on take off. My 172 had the landing light on the wing, the RG has it on the nose. As I was getting close to the runway all I could think of was that the landing light on the RG wasn't nearly as good as the one that was on my 172.

I'd done a lot of night flights so in the end I flared when the runway edge lights looked right out the side windows and made one of my smoothest landing a few seconds later. I figured out the landing light was out about the time I landed. It made me real glad that I'd kept current on night landings and I bought an LED landing light in hopes that I won't have to try that again.

Gary
 
citizen5000 said:
The fully equipped Cirrus has an IR camera. No runway lights are really needed with it as you can see clouds and ground at night, including the runway.
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IR has limits when viewed through clouds just like NVS. Dense obscurations are problematic.
 
GaryV said:
I was landing in the Kansas City area on the third at night one time. I was on an extended downwind when large fireworks started going off at and above my altitude on both sides of the plane. At that point they were not ho-hum. They sell large fireworks to the general public in Missouri and Texas. I've never had a big urge to see the fourth from the air since then.

I also got to make my first night landing in my Cardinal RG without a landing light. Everything was working fine on take off. My 172 had the landing light on the wing, the RG has it on the nose. As I was getting close to the runway all I could think of was that the landing light on the RG wasn't nearly as good as the one that was on my 172.

I'd done a lot of night flights so in the end I flared when the runway edge lights looked right out the side windows and made one of my smoothest landing a few seconds later. I figured out the landing light was out about the time I landed. It made me real glad that I'd kept current on night landings and I bought an LED landing light in hopes that I won't have to try that again.

Gary
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I once helped a Cardinal RG owner change her landing light. It's easiest to do by removing the cowl, but putting the cowl back on is a bear. In the end her hands were all cut up and I resolved when I bought my RG that I'd never do that. First landing light outage I bought LEDs and have never looked back. They're better for visibility than standard incandescents and they last a LONG time.
 
I find it pretty easy to put my cowl on. Once you get it past the doors and close to position it will stay up on the passenger side while you move around and set one of the southco's on the pilot side. Just keep your hand on it, move around to the passenger side, get things set right for the oil cooler, and you can lock in the passenger side. I find it easier to do on my own than with help.

Gary
 
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