troubles with night landing

[scarybus320]

I am currently a student pilot, and just started my night takeoff landings training, my instructor said it's easier and people lands better at night, that's a different story to me and I think he is making things up since i found it difficult. I had to fight with x-wind, unable to see the dark runway as the landing lights are helpless when airplane is close to the ground.
the airplane I am training on is a citabria, as the landing light is below the prop, it doesn't really help much at all compared to landing with lights off. the wind sock doesn't help much since i couldn't really see it from far and the only way to know where the wind is coming from is to align the run way and remember the wind direction before takeoff, later i tried wheel landing and hope that i can see the runway edge light and feel the runway way flatten, well, the first few tries was not good , and had to go around or re-flare it again and do a 3 - point landing. the worst part was the a very serious mistake to me that i should have go around, 3 point, a soft bounced and i thought it touch the ground soft but it bounced and airborne for a second and sink back to the ground, and i had to jab the rudder pedals so quick to get it align and had to fix the tail wheel shimmy problem with relax the stick a bit. and all the landings are under 5-7 knots of x-wind.
i thought i have fixed my mistakes i made during day time, but at night, all the old mistakes comes back again, it was frustrated and tired. but can't wait to do it again.

 

[poadeleted20]

The visual cues are different at night, and it takes time and effort to learn them. Give it that time and work with your instructor. Most importantly, be open and honest with your instructor about what you're seeing/not seeing -- the instructor can't help if he doesn't understand your problem.

 

[DouglasBader]

Peripheral vision is an important aid as one settles onto the runway, but it's really only effective if your'e flying onto the same width runway all the time.

Look farther down the runway. The landing light shouldn't make any difference in helping you determine when to flare. If your'e looking directly in front of the airplane, where the landing light would shine, you may be looking too close.

Look farther down, be aware of your peripheral vision, and keep practicing night landings under supervision.

It will come to you. Give it time.

 

[wabower]

For any wheel landing, but especially at night, a stabilized descent rate of lesss than 100'/min for the segment immediately prior to touch-down is critical. A tiny increase in power will help flatten the slope, provide more control of the tail and make the process easier to repeat. When the wheels touch, immediately pull the power to idle.

 

[timwinters]

For me:

The runway is 5' higher at night.

I was taught to put the aircraft in the landing attitude about 15' above the runway, leave a little power in to minimize the descent and just hold it there until it finds the runway. This has always worked for me in 172/182 birds and they'll still get down and stopped easily on all but the shortest of fields. It's not glamorous but it works well. I have no idea if this would work for a tail dragger though.

 

[Jaybird180]

I enjoy night flying and do so whenever practical. If called upon to explain what the FAA means by night illusions and such, I would not be able to do it because I never really understood it, must be all the nights I spent out riding my bike until 2am paying dividends.

I'm bringing this up in that perhaps your instructor is also poor at explaining the different Visual cues for night flying. Perhaps another instructor could help in this arena to point out the specifics to you?

 

[Mattl]

Night flying is great- Ron covered it by saying, tell your instructor what you are/are not seeing, and work with her/him to get it right.

Douglas made another good point, something that "I knew" to be prepared for this weekend, and still managed to screw it up. I landed and flared high 5-8' higher than normal because I was landing on a 10000x150 strip vs my normal 3-5k x ~75 strip.

You'll get it, maybe not the first night, or the second, but it'll come, and that first greaser with a passenger in the plane asking "was that the ground?" is a wonderful feeling! (and you at the night portion, congrats on getting solo, and I'm guessing at least 1-2 XC's done! You're close!!!! )

 

[Morne]

Have you tried landing on a runway with VASI?

 

[scarybus320]

For any wheel landing, but especially at night, a stabilized descent rate of lesss than 100'/min for the segment immediately prior to touch-down is critical. A tiny increase in power will help flatten the slope, provide more control of the tail and make the process easier to repeat. When the wheels touch, immediately pull the power to idle.

my first try had contact the ground before i even realized the wheel is very close to the ground for a tab of power, then second try had float a little bit with power... and ended up go around, and took the 3rd try to get it on the ground smoothly

 

[scarybus320]

I enjoy night flying and do so whenever practical. If called upon to explain what the FAA means by night illusions and such, I would not be able to do it because I never really understood it, must be all the nights I spent out riding my bike until 2am paying dividends.

I'm bringing this up in that perhaps your instructor is also poor at explaining the different Visual cues for night flying. Perhaps another instructor could help in this arena to point out the specifics to you?

yes, i will try with another instructor with night landings, and i did realized that my instructor didn't say much about it and not even demo one..

 

[scarybus320]

Have you tried landing on a runway with VASI?

yes, and VASI is what i used to judge the glide path and have never flew below the gliding path ( all red lights), to be precise, my problem for now is the last 10-15 feet off the ground, difficult to judge.