Night currency

[4RNB]

My spouse is away so I figured it would be a good time to go do my 3 night takeoff and landings. I familiarized myself with the rules with regards to the proper times, thought to go up a bit early during civil twilight, get used to the night sky again. I have not flown at night in maybe two years and really only have near minimum amount of time. Winds calm on the ground. My plan was to fly for about 30 minutes, then maybe land at a nearby airport, head back home and do the rest of the landings and takeoffs. Halfway to the destination the plane was buffeted in light turbulence, my pilot window blew open. I put AP on, fixed the window, turned back for home thinking that maybe the air was more unsettling as I reached water (a river that was opening up). Destination airport wind was @9.

So I proceeded to just do a 5 mi circle 2500 ft above home airport, had periodic unevenness. As this continued I reappraised my plans for the night, made note of little illumination from the moon, and figured maybe just getting safe on the ground was enough. At 2500 ft, most I saw the wind was 15, on base to final this was 24, short final 16. My alignment was crap because of the wind but brought things in well enough, wind decreased to 6 maybe 200 ft above the ground. Ground crew said it had been like this for a few days, get 300 feet up and the wind situation really became a factor. It was fun to push the envelope a bit, do something I had not done for a while.

THe radios were near silent for duration of flight on a very popular CTAF frequency.

My preflight wx check was only to look at local TAF. I need to rethink and better come up with a mental checklist for night flight, here seeking your input, what do you do?
1- Do a better wx check, winds aloft are key. Maybe re read wx books and see if there are patterns to expect. I expected clear calm.
2- Add the moonlight in as a safety factor
3- Better understand lighting relationship in the cockpit. Cabin light off had PFD about right but GPS too dim. When cabin light sufficient to see breakers, knobs, switches (carb heat/TOGO etc) the displays became too bright. I wonder if I could get a small amount of red light down lower on the panel.
4- Check window latch?
5- What else?

 

[Gary Ward]

My spouse wants me at the airport especially when she's home! lol We get along best that way!

I am not sure where you fly or what you fly?
This time of year the jet stream is at lower latitudes and you get more wind. It has been like you described for months now.
2 evenings ago it was 4 kts on the ground and 30+ kts at 3000'
It is not a big deal unless you want to go somewhere into a headwind, all you can do is try to find the altitude with the least amount of head wind.
It has been real choppy up there and you get used to it.
Remember maneuvering speed when it get's rough and you will be fine.
Hot summer nights are like flying in butter, so smooth.

I have found night or early evening or early mornings the best time to fly. I have to work weekdays so I fly a lot in the evenings. Almost always take off before dark, fly for an an hour or so and then get at least a night landing in. During the hot summer nights I land almost every flight after dark. During the winter I can't get to the hangar until it is starting to get dark at 6pm, so I fly after dark. I still do a lot pattern work at my home airport practicing all different kinds of landings and take offs and some of them are after dark. It is fun to me. So I easily stay night current. But I can't remember the last time I took someone flying at night.

That is the moon and that is a brand new airport that I have all to myself that I practice at. I have never seen or heard anyone at this airport.

My favorite thing to do on Fridays and Saturday nights is to take a nap after work, then go to the airport around 7pm and fly. Then hang out at the hangar until midnight or later. Love it there and that late I have to whole place to myself.

 

[Florida Flyer]

I like to be sure to do it late winter if I have to since it gets dark before my bedtime

 

[4RNB]

I like to be sure to do it late winter if I have to since it gets dark before my bedtime

Yeah, I was pushing past mine!

 

[midlifeflyer]

I have not flown at night in maybe two years and really only have near minimum amount of time.

Here's the key to your question. I think your night double-check checklist is fine. What you need is more experience. It doesn't have to be a big deal. What I always recommend is to go somewhere else. Three stop and goes in a familiar traffic pattern covers maybe a tenth of what night flight is about. Even a short trip to a different nearby airport will greatly increase experience and comfort level.

 

[MikeNY]

5- What else?

6. For practice, fly more often at night
… and a flashlight (as backup).

 

[Gary Ward]

When I am flying around for fun, I try to fly into the wind and maybe find a airport to land at or do some pattern work, then enjoy the tail wind coming home.

Hot summer nights and the bugs. Gives me something to do when I get back to the hangar.

All that flying and bug removal makes a pilot hungry.

 

[farangutan]

I really like flying at night and I typically fly approaches at night for currency with a safety pilot. At night, even when flying VFR I use an approach as guidance to familiar and unfamiliar airports. Especially flying in to an airport with multiple runways and/or surrounded by city lights.
My favorite is to sneak out super early on the weekend and fly an hour or two of night before dawn and then I have nice high for the rest of the day. I'll throw in my pics too.

 

[Jim_R]

At 2500 ft, most I saw the wind was 15, on base to final this was 24, short final 16. ...wind decreased to 6 maybe 200 ft above the ground.

What do you have that's constantly measuring your winds??

What about winds aloft bothers you during night flight that doesn't apply during daytime flying?

 

[Gary Ward]

At 2500 ft, most I saw the wind was 15, on base to final this was 24, short final 16. ...wind decreased to 6 maybe 200 ft above the ground.

What do you have that's constantly measuring your winds??

What about winds aloft bothers you during night flight that doesn't apply during daytime flying?


After I had the G5 put in I discovered that GAD13 temp prob will give me OAT, TAS, wind vectors and DA. It is damn near like flying a G1000 that I flew during training. GAD13 was 495 extra plus some labor after the G5 install.
But I really don't look at it in the pattern. I can tell how much wind I have depending on how much my plane is crabbing in the pattern and on final.

 

[iamtheari]

You just need more night experience. I have found that it works well to obtain a spouse who likes to go for a $100 hamburger on the weekend but doesn't like leaving her favorite store until at least five minutes past closing time. Before my wife started flying with me, less than 7% of my flying time was at night. Since she got on board, it's been 22%.

 

[Jim_R]

After I had the G5 put in I discovered that GAD13 temp prob will give me OAT, TAS, wind vectors and DA. It is damn near like flying a G1000 that I flew during training. GAD13 was 495 extra plus some labor after the G5 install.
But I really don't look at it in the pattern. I can tell how much wind I have depending on how much my plane crabbing on final.

Okay, I guess that's nifty. But if the OP is staring at that info while flying the pattern instead of...well, flying the pattern, then perhaps that's part of his problem.

Like you, I just point my airplane where it needs to be pointed so that it goes where I want it to go. If I'm 20 deg crabbed while on final, then so be it; I'll fly down to the runway, kick out the crab, roll as required, and land. I don't need to know how many knots the wind is blowing to do that. (And it also doesn't matter if it's day or night.)

 

[Gary Ward]

Okay, I guess that's nifty. But if the OP is staring at that info while flying the pattern instead of...well, flying the pattern, then perhaps that's part of his problem.

Like you, I just point my airplane where it needs to be pointed so that it goes where I want it to go. If I'm 20 deg crabbed while on final, then so be it; I'll fly down to the runway, kick out the crab, roll as required, and land. I don't need to know how many knots the wind is blowing to do that. (And it also doesn't matter if it's day or night.)

Agree, don't need wind information especially while in the pattern when your eyes should outside and only glancing at your air speed and staying coordinated.

 

[midlifeflyer]

Those comments about constantly checking the wind readout, staring at the ASI instead of out the window? Those aren't night problems. They may get worse a night but those are general landing problems.

 

[Zeldman]

Wanna really dark night to get current with.??

Come out to the southwest, I'll take ya to a few airports where it is so dark you almost need to be instrument current for clear and a million nights.!!

There are no lights on the ground for reference, except for the runway. It is soo dark the runway lights will look like are actually floating.

It is soo dark when you look up you will see the Milky Way, Mars, Almond Joy and Baby Ruth...

 

[Gary Ward]

Wanna really dark night to get current with.??

Come out to the southwest, I'll take ya to a few airports where it is so dark you almost need to be instrument current for clear and a million nights.!!

There are no lights on the ground for reference, except for the runway. It is soo dark the runway lights will look like are actually floating.

It is soo dark when you look up you will see the Milky Way, Mars, Almond Joy and Baby Ruth...

Darkest I have seen it is when we illegally stayed a night in our RV at the Grand Canyon in the parking lot at the desert view watch tower.

It was so dark I couldn’t see my hand right in front of my face. The clear sky was amazing. I probably won’t ever see it that dark ever again. There was 0 light. Except the stars.
I didn’t know it was illegal until the next year or 2 later we tried it again and got chased out of there at about midnight by a ranger. We told him our RV wouldn’t fit in the small campground there. He didn’t care and we drove out of there in pitch black over an hour to a truck stop.

 

[Zeldman]

The clear sky was amazing. I probably won’t ever see it that dark ever again.

I flew over the Grand Canyon one night at FL210. Crystal clear night and not a single light to be seen on the ground. I coulda been flying inside a cow for all I knew.

Yeah, clear skies is one of the advantages of living in NW NM.!!

 

[brcase]

Here's the key to your question. I think your night double-check checklist is fine. What you need is more experience. It doesn't have to be a big deal. What I always recommend is to go somewhere else. Three stop and goes in a familiar traffic pattern covers maybe a tenth of what night flight is about. Even a short trip to a different nearby airport will greatly increase experience and comfort level.

Exactly...
After getting my Pilots certificate I had probably 25 hours of getting off work at 11pm and flying for 45minutes to an hour around the local area. So I had quite a bit of night time for a low time pilot.

Then a friend and I decided to do a Saturday morning Cross Country flight. Doing my 24hr ahead of time weather check the weather briefer said get there before 2am or you won't get there. So we ended up leaving Friday evening. It was a beautiful perfectly clear moonless night, cruising along with the "Loran" saying I was .2 miles off course and 150miles to go, I am admiring the stars when I realize that, that glow I am seeing just above the leading edge of 182 wing is actually a city. I look at the attitude indicator and roll the 30-45 degrees back to level and the city moves down below the wing where it is supposed to be. I had about 10 hours of instrument training at that point and decided it was time to start practicing my instrument scan. The rest of the flight was uneventful. Totally different flying out in an unpopulated area where there were just enough lights on the ground to make the them look just the stars I was seeing above.

Brian

 

[midlifeflyer]

As you’ll see this video is a bit dated, but I figure it fits this thread.