Night Flight: How Should I Go About Getting Better

Sinistar

Sinistar

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Brad
Since I got my PPL I have been diligent about remaining night current. But I have been doing this...just to stay current (legal)...not to be proficient and get better at it. Is being "minimally" night current actually a bad/dangerous idea?

I do want to get better at night flight. Actually, IIRC there are some not so nice statistics regarding low time night flying. Now, I have logged over 3hrs of night flight this summer. With one exception though, each flight started before sunset and then ended after official sunset for logging purposes. So very little of these flights have been at really "night flying". All have been near my home base and then landing there.

What really raised my concern was my last flight (only 0.5hrs) was a true night flight. I flew the plane back home from a different airport all well after dark...and it was hazy. I didn't have anyone else with me. I then realized the last time I actually did a full night flight with a landing somewhere else was with an instructor 1yr ago - wow!

So I am open to suggestions on how to build up night flight experience. I know I can just hire my CFI over and over again but at some time I need to be able to do this alone or with passengers. Is there a good progressive way to do this such as 'N' short night flights and return, then a few short cross countries, etc.

Does getting the instrument rating really go a long ways towards night flight or is there just no substitute for flying at night without your CFI to build the experience and confidence?

This is coming up now as its eventually going to be dark by the time I get off work and out to the plane. So that means all night flying unless I only fly on the weekends.

I will also note, my biggest concerns about night flight are: GPS/Gadget failure, landings have a bit of a thump, finding myself a bit slower on approach, concern about misinterpreting the horizon, landing at a new airports with trees or obstacles near the approach and off airport emergency landing site selection.
 
Get the IR.

Fly a bunch at night till it’s second nature. Get comfortable without runway lights and without landing lights.

My $0.02.
 
The IR helps, I’ll often go direct to the FAF and follow the needles in
 
This is one of those things where nothing beats practice.

ETA: change that to proficiency. Proficiency takes a lot of practice. Some of which should be guided.
 
Radar Contact said:
Get the IR.

Fly a bunch at night till it’s second nature. Get comfortable without runway lights and without landing lights.

My $0.02.
Click to expand...
^^^^^*THAT.
Especially if you live in a sparsely populated area. You can loose that horizon and Kennedy yourself fast. Think about it. Most IFR flights have only smLl parts that are IMC. Night can be one long IMC
 
Do a night cross-country and make the entire flight ‘at night’, so do the preflight at night and the whole nine. It really helped me just launching under a night sky, rather than taking off while it’s still daylight.

Just keep practicing!
 
Sinistar said:
With one exception though, each flight started before sunset and then ended after official sunset for logging purposes.
Click to expand...
You do realize that logging night takeoffs is part of the currency requirement, right?

FWIW, one of the bigger hazards in night flying is a black hole takeoff...if you can’t smoothly transition to flight by reference to instruments (and I’m not implying that you shouldn’t fly at night without an IFR panel), it can get a bit dicey close to the ground.

Then, if you fly with the panel lights very low for a while to get your night vision, you’ll be amazed what you CAN see.

Spend a little time with an instructor for the basics. If you can’t get comfortable on your own after that, find an instructor who will put together a night flying syllabus that addresses the hazards you see, as well as the ones he sees that you might not. Pun intended. ;)
 
Be sure that you apply the correct definition of "night" for each of the things that it relates to. You have to have position lights on from sunset until sunrise. You can log night time from the end of evening civil twilight until the beginning of morning civil twilight. And you must log 3 takeoffs and full-stop landings more than 1 hour after sunset and 1 hour before sunrise in order to be current to carry passengers during those hours. Thank you, FAA, for giving us at least 3 definitions of the same term that conflict with each other even in a single entry in a pilot's logbook.

About the instrument rating, it will go a long way toward flying the airplane at night. But it does not do much for landing at night, which is the subject of completely different optical illusions. A successful IFR flight ends with a visual landing, just as a successful VFR flight does.

You should definitely get the instrument rating. It will make you a better pilot in many ways, including the en route phase of night flying and generally your ability to maintain attitude without reference to the horizon or when confronted with false horizons, a common nighttime optical illusion. But you should also work on your skills and confidence in night flying separately.

Sorry, I am not enough of an expert to help much with how to build those skills and confidence, other than to suggest riding along with another pilot at night so you can focus on the visual situation without the pressure of flying. But I can tell you that the instrument rating is a huge part of my comfort zone in flying at night, other than the part of it where I actually have to land the plane. And that is where most of the issues are going to occur anyhow, other than losing control of the plane due to misinterpreting its attitude.

Here are my thoughts on your specific concerns:
  • GPS/Gadget failure: Non-issue if you maintain situational awareness up until the failure occurs. It's harder to read a chart in the cockpit at night, but finding an airport where you can land is, for me at least, easier at night than during the day. Exceptions apply such as the abundance of random lights and oil well flares in my area that make it hard to tell where towns start and end, but in general it is really easy to spot a decent-sized town at night and watch to see if there is a flashing airport beacon. It's even easier if you know where you are already.
  • landings have a bit of a thump: So do mine during the day! But seriously, this is where practice makes perfect. Have you tried different runways or airports, or even different intensity settings for pilot-controlled lighting? I was doing some night flying a year or so back and got into a click-war with an airliner landing at another airport that had the same CTAF frequency. My airport was hearing 3 of their 7 clicks and turning the lights down to low intensity. I decided to embrace it for a couple landings. It wasn't a lot different, but it probably made a subtle difference in my ability to sense height above the runway from my peripheral vision.
  • finding myself a bit slower on approach: Practice makes perfect here, too. And heed the words of a flight instructor I flew with one time: "I'm never not trimming." If your plane is trimmed for your approach speed, you will physically feel in your hand if you are pulling back and forcing it to fly too slow. Trim the plane right and this will be a lot easier.
  • concern about misinterpreting the horizon: The instrument rating will help immensely with this because you will have at least 6 instruments helping you determine where the horizon is, if you cross-check and interpret them correctly. Being aware of the possibility of false horizons is the immediate thing to do, and you obviously are already aware of it.
  • landing at a new airports with trees or obstacles near the approach: One solution is not to do that. Study airports you want to go to and, if there are obstacles in the approach area that you are uncomfortable with, don't fly there at night. Or not until you've been there during the day. And, of course, don't trust everything you read. Trees grow between A/FD updates.
  • off airport emergency landing site selection: This is one of those calculated risks of flying. Night takes away a lot of your ability to identify and select an emergency landing site. The risk of an emergency that forces you to make an emergency off-airport landing is always there, but the risk of that emergency having a bad outcome goes up at night. Only you can decide which risks you will take. I like flying over many other activities because it puts most of the risk calculus into my hands. (No drunks or unsecured loads flying at my airplane as they do in my car on the highway.) And you can't eliminate all of the risks of flying, even if you never get into a plane. (If one crashes into your house while you are asleep, you can die in a plane crash without even going to the airport.) I am personally comfortable with flying at night and the risks that I take in doing so. Some people won't fly at night without at least a second engine or a parachute on the plane, because they have a different acceptable level of risk than I do. At the end of the day, I think that there really isn't much you can do about emergency landing site selection at night other than hope that the ground is somewhat flat when you get down to it at night, and of course choose your route to mostly fly over flat terrain or even only over interstate highways. That's why you'll often hear the advice to glide down to about 100 feet AGL, turn on the landing light, and look to see where you are landing...and if you don't like what you see, turn the landing light back off.
 
on the same boat as OP, my night flight was before i got my license :(

i have been thinking about doing this in 2 ways

1. Get off the ground way before sunset >> you have an way out and can land when there is light
2. follow what Brad is doing, take off right at sunset or little after while there is still light, then land after end of civil twilight and progress like that
 
night is the best time to fly for me. More relaxing, Less traffic, less turbulence, can pretty much do what you want at airports.
Start by taking off just after sunset go out a few mile to your comfort level. Get comfortable there, go out further, get comfortable, go to another airport.
There are many pilots that don't like flying at night, or are more afraid of the dark. That is a loss of many possible hours to fly. especially with winter coming up.
 
The other thing that crosses my mind is... clouds... u don’t see them until you are in them (I think)
 
Feeling comfortable flying on the gauges goes a long way in getting comfortable with flying at night. That might not require you to actually get the IR though, it all depends on what you want to do with it. The important thing is to have lots of practice flying (a) without visual reference and (b) with visual reference at night in the airport environment so that you get used to dealing with the illusions that flying at night brings.
 
Getting comfortable at night is just like flying during the daytime, in that it takes some practice and experience.
Obviously at night there are less visual cues so you have to rely on VASI on final and anything else you have to help stay clear of terrain. If... you are familiar with an ILS, that can also help you remain on the glidepath.
Planning a night flight takes a little more work, rules, equipment, lighting at the airports and how to use them are all things to consider.
Most places around here in the Midwest don't have too much terrain to worry about on final, not like certain places back east or out west.

Where have you already flown to around here, plan a few flights to those places for the extra comfort level. You already know about trees, wires and such at those places, now fly there at night. I would maybe start out doing some TO and landings at your local airport at night to get used to the sight picture. From there I would plan some xc to local places that you've already been to. Keep them somewhat close to the Twin Cities so you can have the city lights nearby as a reference. Pick a night like tonight when it's clear, not like the past few days when we had too much smoke and haze. Pick a night with a big moon, that helps a lot as a reference, in the winter it really lights up the ground. Those clear and crisp fall nights are perfect for flying, calm and the visibility is 20 miles.

I wouldn't worry too much about the black hole on TO as long as you're aware of it. Unless you get out to remote areas on a very hazy night and TO over a swamp or forest and not towards a town, big difference.

Confidence on final comes from being on speed and the correct glidepath all the way to the threshold.
 
Flying at night for me I find myself extra viginant. Always thinking about where to go if engine out. Not to toot foreflight but one of the selections you can alway have displayed is closest field. Always keep that handy and keep an eye out. during day I feel like a boss in a single. At night especially moonless over sparsely populated terrain I feel more vulnerable.
Some of the most peaceful flying is at night though.
Emphasizes what my cfi always tells me about flying, hours of boredom iterspaced with seconds of sheer terror. Lol

Just because you start the IFR doesn’t mean you have to run and get on the written this month and finish by end of the year. Just starting it will make you a better rounded pilot though. Just don’t get complacent and stop training. Work on it slowly if you have to.

As soon as you stop learning you start getting dumber. At least I do:rolleyes:
 
Go above 7500’ and head out to somewhere. Follow the roads, pick out the towns, etc. a great way to enjoy night flights.

As someone said earlier, and I might get blasted here, but, get into a habit of flying the instruments for your transition phases.

I bought my Cirrus Sr20 at 49 hours logged and a wet PPL, my first instructor (I needed 10 hours of dual, for insurance reasons) made me fly the instruments. I had to learn my planes systems inside and out. Which I’m very thankful for, as my first cross country after sign off was from NC to TX for a funeral. Bottom line, nothing stops a VFR pilot from learning the gauges.
 
I did quite a bit of night XC prior to the IR. Pick good weather, and nights with moon illumination to start. Take some short trips then longer ones. Until you get an IR, don't tangle with weather that might get you into inadvertant IMC especially with moonless conditions. Practice makes for confidence.

If you are not confident with night landings practice local or fly with an Instructor.

Definitely consider getting the IR. Then flying at night means filing and having your IR safety blanket while enjoying the usually smooth air and pretty lights. Done proficiently with a sound aircraft night trips can be conducted with minimal additional risk.
 
MauleSkinner said:
You do realize that logging night takeoffs is part of the currency requirement, right?

FWIW, one of the bigger hazards in night flying is a black hole takeoff...if you can’t smoothly transition to flight by reference to instruments (and I’m not implying that you shouldn’t fly at night without an IFR panel), it can get a bit dicey close to the ground.

Then, if you fly with the panel lights very low for a while to get your night vision, you’ll be amazed what you CAN see.

Spend a little time with an instructor for the basics. If you can’t get comfortable on your own after that, find an instructor who will put together a night flying syllabus that addresses the hazards you see, as well as the ones he sees that you might not. Pun intended. ;)
Click to expand...
Yes I realize I need both night takeoffs and landings to be at least 1hr after sunset and 1hr before sunrise to count towards being current. I have actually done this three different times since my checkride.

But lately I've been picking up a night landing almost every flight, but not a night takeoff.

This evening I did a 60nm cross country. I was going to go farther but it is so incredibly hazy that I didn't want to be up very long after the sun went down. So another day takeoff and night landing.

And to answer a few responses , I do live in the flatland just west of the Twin Cities. Going west it can be pretty dark. Add some haze and like tonight there really wasnt much of a horizon. Ironically, just before dark tonight, all the lakes were giving the best reference to ground with all these black irregular shapes below and ahead.

One great thing about to tonight's flight...first time since May that I've closed air vents from being cold!!!
 
Blasted into a cloud, at night VFR, before I had my IR. Know what? The airplane kept working fine. Be comfortable flying on instruments, whether you have the rating or not. I mean, get it eventually, but be prepared for inadvertant entry into IMC.

As for logging - if it's dark, log it. The rest is noise.
 
iamtheari said:
Be sure that you apply the correct definition of "night" for each of the things that it relates to. You have to have position lights on from sunset until sunrise. You can log night time from the end of evening civil twilight until the beginning of morning civil twilight. And you must log 3 takeoffs and full-stop landings more than 1 hour after sunset and 1 hour before sunrise in order to be current to carry passengers during those hours. Thank you, FAA, for giving us at least 3 definitions of the same term that conflict with each other even in a single entry in a pilot's logbook.

About the instrument rating, it will go a long way toward flying the airplane at night. But it does not do much for landing at night, which is the subject of completely different optical illusions. A successful IFR flight ends with a visual landing, just as a successful VFR flight does.

You should definitely get the instrument rating. It will make you a better pilot in many ways, including the en route phase of night flying and generally your ability to maintain attitude without reference to the horizon or when confronted with false horizons, a common nighttime optical illusion. But you should also work on your skills and confidence in night flying separately.

Sorry, I am not enough of an expert to help much with how to build those skills and confidence, other than to suggest riding along with another pilot at night so you can focus on the visual situation without the pressure of flying. But I can tell you that the instrument rating is a huge part of my comfort zone in flying at night, other than the part of it where I actually have to land the plane. And that is where most of the issues are going to occur anyhow, other than losing control of the plane due to misinterpreting its attitude.

Here are my thoughts on your specific concerns:
  • GPS/Gadget failure: Non-issue if you maintain situational awareness up until the failure occurs. It's harder to read a chart in the cockpit at night, but finding an airport where you can land is, for me at least, easier at night than during the day. Exceptions apply such as the abundance of random lights and oil well flares in my area that make it hard to tell where towns start and end, but in general it is really easy to spot a decent-sized town at night and watch to see if there is a flashing airport beacon. It's even easier if you know where you are already.
  • landings have a bit of a thump: So do mine during the day! But seriously, this is where practice makes perfect. Have you tried different runways or airports, or even different intensity settings for pilot-controlled lighting? I was doing some night flying a year or so back and got into a click-war with an airliner landing at another airport that had the same CTAF frequency. My airport was hearing 3 of their 7 clicks and turning the lights down to low intensity. I decided to embrace it for a couple landings. It wasn't a lot different, but it probably made a subtle difference in my ability to sense height above the runway from my peripheral vision.
  • finding myself a bit slower on approach: Practice makes perfect here, too. And heed the words of a flight instructor I flew with one time: "I'm never not trimming." If your plane is trimmed for your approach speed, you will physically feel in your hand if you are pulling back and forcing it to fly too slow. Trim the plane right and this will be a lot easier.
  • concern about misinterpreting the horizon: The instrument rating will help immensely with this because you will have at least 6 instruments helping you determine where the horizon is, if you cross-check and interpret them correctly. Being aware of the possibility of false horizons is the immediate thing to do, and you obviously are already aware of it.
  • landing at a new airports with trees or obstacles near the approach: One solution is not to do that. Study airports you want to go to and, if there are obstacles in the approach area that you are uncomfortable with, don't fly there at night. Or not until you've been there during the day. And, of course, don't trust everything you read. Trees grow between A/FD updates.
  • off airport emergency landing site selection: This is one of those calculated risks of flying. Night takes away a lot of your ability to identify and select an emergency landing site. The risk of an emergency that forces you to make an emergency off-airport landing is always there, but the risk of that emergency having a bad outcome goes up at night. Only you can decide which risks you will take. I like flying over many other activities because it puts most of the risk calculus into my hands. (No drunks or unsecured loads flying at my airplane as they do in my car on the highway.) And you can't eliminate all of the risks of flying, even if you never get into a plane. (If one crashes into your house while you are asleep, you can die in a plane crash without even going to the airport.) I am personally comfortable with flying at night and the risks that I take in doing so. Some people won't fly at night without at least a second engine or a parachute on the plane, because they have a different acceptable level of risk than I do. At the end of the day, I think that there really isn't much you can do about emergency landing site selection at night other than hope that the ground is somewhat flat when you get down to it at night, and of course choose your route to mostly fly over flat terrain or even only over interstate highways. That's why you'll often hear the advice to glide down to about 100 feet AGL, turn on the landing light, and look to see where you are landing...and if you don't like what you see, turn the landing light back off.
Click to expand...
Thank you so much for taking the time to respond in excellent detail. I love the "Click War". I always expect it to happen and it hasn't here...yet! Lots of great advice here and is getting me thinking.
 
champ driver said:
Getting comfortable at night is just like flying during the daytime, in that it takes some practice and experience.
Obviously at night there are less visual cues so you have to rely on VASI on final and anything else you have to help stay clear of terrain. If... you are familiar with an ILS, that can also help you remain on the glidepath.
Planning a night flight takes a little more work, rules, equipment, lighting at the airports and how to use them are all things to consider.
Most places around here in the Midwest don't have too much terrain to worry about on final, not like certain places back east or out west.

Where have you already flown to around here, plan a few flights to those places for the extra comfort level. You already know about trees, wires and such at those places, now fly there at night. I would maybe start out doing some TO and landings at your local airport at night to get used to the sight picture. From there I would plan some xc to local places that you've already been to. Keep them somewhat close to the Twin Cities so you can have the city lights nearby as a reference. Pick a night like tonight when it's clear, not like the past few days when we had too much smoke and haze. Pick a night with a big moon, that helps a lot as a reference, in the winter it really lights up the ground. Those clear and crisp fall nights are perfect for flying, calm and the visibility is 20 miles.

I wouldn't worry too much about the black hole on TO as long as you're aware of it. Unless you get out to remote areas on a very hazy night and TO over a swamp or forest and not towards a town, big difference.

Confidence on final comes from being on speed and the correct glidepath all the way to the threshold.
Click to expand...
I sure thought it was hazy on this evenings flight. I think it was more haze tonight than on Sunday flying down to 'Kato for their pancake breakfast. I can usually see downtown Mpls from Glencoe, but not tonight.

But I do recall (no haze) how big and obvious the Twin Cities are and how I knew generally where I was. And the big interstates look very obvious at night.

The moon tonight was great, give or take about 5 deg, my return destination was almost directly under the moon. But on Saturday night at 10pm, it wasn't much of a reference.

I might start doing some night flights to Wilmar and Mankato. Both have nice runways and have ILS. I have used the glidescope at these places, as recently as last Friday.
 
Okay, so I am kicking around a few ideas:

1.) Spend more time at my home airport doing pattern work when it's dark. Mainly to address stable, correct speed approaches and lighting vs landings.

2.) I've landed at about 30 airports so far. Pick 3-6 of them and return at night. Pick ones with no crazy obstacles or close tree lines. Build up more night xc practice.

3.) Get with my CFII and at least focus on the use of instruments at night and other gotchas. This could be the start of IR.

4.) Complete 2 or 3 simple night cross countries with a passenger. Ideally the passenger is a pilot. If not, at least someone who will be awake, alert and not to fired up to fly.

5.) Complete 1 longer night trip. Ideally a passenger and make it an overnight.

6.) Start working on the IFR rating.

7.) Always use flight following if leaving the pattern and FF is available.

8.) Avoid big areas of swamps or large forests if possible since nothing can be seen.
 
Check the night solo boxes for the commercial while you're at it.
 
Hmm...I don't get the reason to bring a passenger for night flights when your admittedly trying to get better at it. The night flight accident statistics are horrid. The fact that you posted the question indicates you have some serious concern about your abilities...which is a good thing. Just because you have your ppl and can blast off into the night doesn't make it a good thing.

I would suggest you get an instructor and do a serious xcountry night flight or 2. Make sure you're confident about your abilities...not just ok. Just because someone has done something previously without a bad outcome doesn't necessarily mean it was the right thing to do. I certainly can't see subjecting a passenger to this risk.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Y'know, in the 800 or so hours I have in the cockpit I think only about 20 are at night. My cockpit lighting sucks, and I'll bet my number one comm will be invisible at night. I don't avoid it at all, I'll happily fly at night if the necessity presents itself (though I am only rarely current to carry pax). I dunno, it isn't something i"m gong to stress over. This is supposed to be fun.
 
I have 275.8 hours of which 28.6 are at night. Summer here is touch to keep current just because sunset is as late as 9:30PM. I just don't go fly around after 10:30PM much...
 
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