Night landings...good practice

SoCal RV Flyer

SoCal RV Flyer

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SoCal RV Flyer
Despite threats of a storm earlier today, tonight it was perfectly clear, calm and ceilings at about 6500', so I jumped in the plane at about 10:30 p.m., flew to Chino and did a couple of landings.

They were both pretty good! I chalk it up to the calm conditions, but also to the reduced vertical depth perception when you get into the flare. Of course, I didn't want to err on the side of bouncing it hard, so I'm sure I flared just a smidge higher and did a much better job of holding it off nose high and letting it gently settle onto the runway.

I don't plan on doing a lot of night VFR (this was the first time since about 2007), but it's nice to get used to it in case I get delayed on the return leg of a longer trip and have to land in the dark, and to be night-current. What's spooky is the thought of an engine-out in the dark. I could find a road pretty easily, but power lines are downright invisible.

Harder to spot Chino at night than I thought it would be...I expected brighter runway lights. And a little weird using the CTAF and flying it as a "non-towered" field.
 
I need to get my night currency back. I love flying at night. I'd go up for an hour after work one of these nights, but noise abatement procedures say no departures after 10pm. =\
 
Yep fun stuff. I did RDU to KJQF last night at midnight and had a real good landing. I could see the beacon from outer space but it was hard to see the runway lights until right on top of it. Also strange when a busy towered field goes quiet, dark and uncontrolled.
 
I used to practice night landings at X50 - Massey Ranch. Its in a dark hole and only has Low Intensity Runway Light System. After I did a few touch and goes I would turn the landing light off and do a few more. After that landing at New Smyrna, Daytona, Melbourne, Titusville etc, etc was pretty easy
 
I always like to go to other airports if I need to do night currency. I find just staying around the pattern at the home airport is too easy. By going to other airports, it makes me think more about how I'm going to enter the pattern, finding the beacon, etc. Night time or early morning are my favorite times to fly.
 
ircphoenix said:
I need to get my night currency back. I love flying at night. I'd go up for an hour after work one of these nights, but noise abatement procedures say no departures after 10pm. =\
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Wait until the time changes. The winter months were made for night flight. :)
 
jordane93 said:
I always like to go to other airports if I need to do night currency. I find just staying around the pattern at the home airport is too easy. By going to other airports, it makes me think more about how I'm going to enter the pattern, finding the beacon, etc. Night time or early morning are my favorite times to fly.
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Good points. I chose Chino because the runways are smooth and wide, and I figured I'd need all the help I could get, being rusty and all.
My home airport is much easier to spot at night, as it's right near a very pronounced kink in the 210 freeway that's ablaze with headlights/taillights.

My wingtip LED landing light is pretty effective (nice to know!), but taxiing was a bit of a challenge. Maybe I'll add a taxi light to the lower cowling when she's apart for annual inspection.
 
ircphoenix said:
I need to get my night currency back. I love flying at night. I'd go up for an hour after work one of these nights, but noise abatement procedures say no departures after 10pm. =\
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From the time stamp of your post, looks like you were up late too! You'll just have to squeeze in a night flight on the weekend, or day off.
 
I love night flying...my landing are MUCH more consistent at night...feels like everything else gets filtered out around me and I am able to be much more focused on the approach.

One of my favorite things to do when I need to keep my night currency up is go fly some laps and see how UN stabilized and out of whack approach I can do and still make a good landing out of it.
 
I used to do night practice at IAD. They're usually pretty quiet in the late evenings (after 8PM or so).
 
I lost my night currency shortly after my PPL check ride back in March. It's just too hard to fly in the legal timeframe to count the takeoffs and landings when sunset is 10 p.m. and sunrise is 5 a.m. during the summer. But last weekend I decided to get it back. All I can say is this: If my day landings were all as good as those three night landings, I would probably grow such an ego that I would go out and get myself a short-sleeve white button-up shirt with epaulettes and put some stripes on it.

I did have one funny experience while I was doing that, though. Our CTAF matches that of a nearby uncontrolled field that gets regional jet air carrier traffic, a few flights a day. So I hear "Williston traffic, SkyWest whatever is 25 miles to the east, landing runway 11, Williston" and then 7 clicks. But the airport below me must have only heard 5 of the 7 clicks because the lights immediately dimmed. I decided to check if there is a lower setting and clicked 3 times. Then I heard, "Sorry about that, we'll wait for you guys to get down before we brighten them back up." And I got to explain that I was at a different airport and they were fine, just that their 7 clicks actually turned down our lights, and have a good night.

And that's probably the best part of going up at night. We aren't that busy out here to begin with, but at night whether I was on CTAF or just listening in on Center during a cross-country I flew the following evening, I was the only GA flight around. I heard Lufthansa flying over on the way to Frankfurt, Air France on the way to Paris, and a few others. It kind of makes you feel like a "real" pilot.
 
Nowadays most of my flying is nights.
 
flyingron said:
I used to do night practice at IAD. They're usually pretty quiet in the late evenings (after 8PM or so).
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Yea I flew out yesterday around 730pm and it was dead. Just me, a biz jet, and JetBlue taxiing to the runway.
 
eman1200 said:
Yep fun stuff. I did RDU to KJQF last night at midnight and had a real good landing. I could see the beacon from outer space but it was hard to see the runway lights until right on top of it. Also strange when a busy towered field goes quiet, dark and uncontrolled.
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Hint: if lights operate on CTAF and there are approach lighting systems (especially with SFL strobes) click 'em on. Man you can see those strobes a long ways off.
 
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eman1200 said:
Yep fun stuff. I did RDU to KJQF last night at midnight and had a real good landing. I could see the beacon from outer space but it was hard to see the runway lights until right on top of it. Also strange when a busy towered field goes quiet, dark and uncontrolled.
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How was the game?
 
This thread reminded me of something I was wondering. What was the origin for the requirement for the night landings for currency to be full stop. Are night touch and go's considered less proof of competency?

Does anyone know why?
 
exncsurfer said:
This thread reminded me of something I was wondering. What was the origin for the requirement for the night landings for currency to be full stop. Are night touch and go's considered less proof of competency?

Does anyone know why?
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My CFI said he suspected it was a safety thing.
 
I'm pretty comfortable flying a night. I was offered a gig flying my 172 pre-dawn from Florida to Nassau and back, once or twice weekly.

No, thanks.
 
exncsurfer said:
This thread reminded me of something I was wondering. What was the origin for the requirement for the night landings for currency to be full stop. Are night touch and go's considered less proof of competency?

Does anyone know why?
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T&G are probably more proof of competency. I think stops are safer. I ask my students to make full stops and taxi back at short fields.
 
whereisrandall said:
T&G are probably more proof of competency. I think stops are safer. I ask my students to make full stops and taxi back at short fields.
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I do the full stop/taxi back routine, mostly because my flaps use a paddle switch that requires you to hold it for the full range of travel. So it gets kinda busy holding that, working throttle, retrimming elevator and all the rest. I like to land, reset the plane, and then do it again.

If I were to do touch-and-go's, maybe the way to go is a no-flap landing. Kinda fun to keep it on the mains and never let the nose wheel touch in this situation.
 
Be careful doing no flappers at night as the airplane attitude is almost level and the landing light shoots straight out. Easy to get too low.
 
SoCal RV Flyer said:
I do the full stop/taxi back routine, mostly because my flaps use a paddle switch that requires you to hold it for the full range of travel. So it gets kinda busy holding that, working throttle, retrimming elevator and all the rest. I like to land, reset the plane, and then do it again.
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I either taxi back and go again, or roll out to the end and take off the other direction if the winds are (often) calm at night.

Haven't tried TnG at night, but my flaps work the same way. Well before touchdown, prop and mixture are forward, and trim is set for the descent. After touchdown, I raise flaps, retrim, then push the throttle forward and Go. So I don't generally do TnG unless the field is close to 5000' long. I'm generally down to ~50 mph by the time I reach for the throttle.
 
mscard88 said:
Be careful doing no flappers at night as the airplane attitude is almost level and the landing light shoots straight out. Easy to get too low.
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Good point. I'll reserve those for daytime only.
 
SoCal RV Flyer said:
Good point. I'll reserve those for daytime only.
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No, it's good practice to do no flap and no landing light as that's what you'd lose if your electrics failed. Just be aware of the difference and watch your altitude and glide path. Go up with a CFI if you think you need one. And, have fun!
 
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