Night IFR Flying

dell30rb

dell30rb

Final Approach
Joined
May 18, 2011
Messages
7,147
Location
Raleigh NC
Display Name
Display name:
Ren
Weather looks good for flying tonight so I might get some actual. Forecasts show 2000 foot ceilings, light rain, mist and 5mi vis.

I got my instrument rating a little over a month ago and have stayed current, i've done several approaches and got a few hours of actual in there too.

What I have not done yet is any night flying in the weather. If I feel sporty after work, and go up tonight i'll be staying local and doing a couple approaches at familiar airports for an hour or two.

Some of the extra precautions - flashlight handy, strict adherence to the approach path, altitudes etc.. after I break out, in case i happen to fly back in to an unseen cloud.. and just generally being on my A game.

Questions - strobe and landing light use when flying approaches in the clouds? I know having strobes on while in clouds is distracting. Not sure about reccomendations for landing light use.

Any night IFR tips / tricks anyone wants to share? how about first experiences?
 
If you enjoy being inside a disco ball, strobes on. Haha. Kill 'em. They'll drive you batty.

The landing light will reflect back inside and give a feeling of daylight. Haha.
 
What I do:

Strobes off in clouds at night. Landing light off untill I break out. YMMV
 
-strobes off, it will become apparent in 2 cycles that they need to be off.
-landing light when you need it (to see the runway or so others can see you in vmc
-you might find it easier to locate the runway with approach/rwy lights on in the inkiness of night, than in grey glow of day imc, a pleasant surprise.
-watch the T/DP trend before you leave to help predict how low the vis might go. Been stung by that before.
 
Don't forget to turn on the field lights (and recycle them every time or two around). It's awful tough to find a dark runway at minimums through the clouds! And what everyone else said about the strobe/landing light. Much much easier with them both off until you break out! If you start feeling a touch of vertigo or get behind the airplane, just focus on your instruments, go missed, and try again later.

Oh yeah, and have fun, and tell us about it after!
 
Thanks for the replies.

It was pretty juicy. Light to moderate rain falling from a high overcast. A bunch of mostly scattered clouds and scuzz from 1000agl to 2000. I was out of the clouds for most of the trip with reduced visibility. Really an MVFR scenario but if this flight had been VFR it would have been miserable.

There were some tstorms south of me but they were forecast to stay out of my area and were weakening. The air was smooth and stable in my area. I did keep an eye on the temp and dew point which was within 2degrees of each other. No fog was forecast and none appeared. I did take the precaution of departing with full tanks.

Though flightaware did not do a great job of depicting my path because I amended my flight plan with the approach controller, this does give a good radar pic
621a2cb4-8267-d5d8.jpg
 
Oh, and forgot to mention that one of the cool things I noticed about flying last night is the way rain looks in the flash of your wingtip strobes!
 
Ya I won't even keep the ice lights on at night in IMC because they are so bright, the strobes no way in hell!

And if its your first time, night hard IMC can be a little distracting.
 
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My first time in night IMC was one of my most memorable flights. There was a full moon above the overcast and after I broke out above, the silhouettes of the cloud tops from the moon light was one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen. Also, the clouds blocked out all the light pollution from the city and I could see so many stars.
 
Flying h4x0r said:
My first time in night IMC was one of my most memorable flights. There was a full moon above the overcast and after I broke out above, the silhouettes of the cloud tops from the moon light was one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen. Also, the clouds blocked out all the light pollution from the city and I could see so many stars.
Click to expand...

I might have to see what the tops are tonight. Its been overcast all day

Edit: oh boy, might have to go flying again tonight PIEDMONT...OVC020 TOPS 060. 21Z BKN035. OTLK...VFR. 08Z IFR CIG
BR.
 
Off topic:
Dell- How do you post iPad screenshots? I've done it by transferring the file back to my PC. Did you find an easier way?
 
Looks like you're having a lot of fun. Hope to join you soon.
 
Teller1900 said:
Don't forget to turn on the field lights (and recycle them every time or two around). It's awful tough to find a dark runway at minimums through the clouds! And what everyone else said about the strobe/landing light. Much much easier with them both off until you break out! If you start feeling a touch of vertigo or get behind the airplane, just focus on your instruments, go missed, and try again later.

Oh yeah, and have fun, and tell us about it after!
Click to expand...

This came up on Saturday - can I reset the lights before they go out? How many minutes are "normal" lights set to? The pilot next to me worried about them turning off so he had his handheld radio at the ready and told me he would turn them back on so I could just fly the airplane. They never did go out (until later) but I think we clicked a lot.
 
Yes they can usually be reset. The difficulty with one-step lighting systems is they may give no indication that they were reset, so you can't tell if your transmission was received.

Some one-step systems will acknowledge a new command by switching the lights back off momentarily and then on. These are typically older systems because another aircraft could turn your lights off at an in-opportune time. Not commonly programmed to "flash" anymore.

Normal timing for FAA Approved systems is 15 minutes.

Changing the intensity level of a multi-step system also resets the 15 minute timer.

Lots more detail in AIM 2-1-9. How different systems interact with approach lighting vs runway lighting, etc.

Non-FAA standard systems are documented under the specific airport in the A/FD in cleartext.
 
denverpilot said:
Yes they can usually be reset. The difficulty with one-step lighting systems is they may give no indication that they were reset, so you can't tell if your transmission was received.

Some one-step systems will acknowledge a new command by switching the lights back off momentarily and then on. These are typically older systems because another aircraft could turn your lights off at an in-opportune time. Not commonly programmed to "flash" anymore.

Normal timing for FAA Approved systems is 15 minutes.

Changing the intensity level of a multi-step system also resets the 15 minute timer.

Lots more detail in AIM 2-1-9. How different systems interact with approach lighting vs runway lighting, etc.

Non-FAA standard systems are documented under the specific airport in the A/FD in cleartext.
Click to expand...

Um, I think I did this to a guy on a 3 mile final on Saturday. I was flying in a dark sky with no moon and decided I wanted to see the 3 airports on the way home, all with PCL's. One was the large Class D airport which had gone to CTAF. When I clicked (unless it was a coincidence) the lights went out. Then I saw them come on again and a pilot (probably ****ed) announced three mile final. Perhaps he should have made other calls too and I wouldn't have messed with his lights! I felt pretty bad, though. Didn't see or hear anyone in the area..... was tempted to come on freq and say sorry.
 
Just don't forget to turn it on. I've flown approaches into airports with all sorts of approach, touch down zone, centerline lights, etc.... Everything is fine until I turn off to the taxiway and can't see squat (oh yeah, the landing light).

I make the analogy to the days when I was an ambulance driver. We'd be blasting down the road with the siren going, rotating lights on the top, flashing lights on the side, strobes on the front, going off and something wasn't quite right and then you realized, you've not got your headlights on.
 
Funny, I almost had a little off runway excursion due to taxi lights.

The blue taxi lights were out of service. I didn't know this. Two runway edge lights had been replaced and were much less bright than the rest of the edge lights. I took this for the taxiway. I shot the gap between the two lights, and almost went right off the runway.

Use your landing light and follow the yellow taxi line. I do...now
 
dell30rb said:
Funny, I almost had a little off runway excursion due to taxi lights.
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I think you meant "incursion" instead of "excursion," but the latter does reflect a more colorful event!
 
:) I was kidding about the excursion... It would have been an adventure onto terrain my airplane was definitely not suited for. An incursion iirc would be entering the wrong taxiway against the controllers instructions.... I was nowhere near the taxiway!
 
dell30rb said:
:) I was kidding about the excursion... It would have been an adventure onto terrain my airplane was definitely not suited for. An incursion iirc would be entering the wrong taxiway against the controllers instructions.... I was nowhere near the taxiway!
Click to expand...

No worries. We've all been on excursions we didn't plan on! :wink2:
 
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