dlevanchuk

hit an alligator on a runway at night time...

thats a bit too much for me

Mr Spooner

You will do one of two things:

1) Flare way too high
2) Don't flare at all and bounce.

It will take some time getting used to depth perception at night

jsfBoat

I've noticed with my Night landings that my landings at day improved a lot. But that didn't happen until a few months ago towards the end of the training for my commercial. Watch out for the clouds as well, harder to see at night. you can also buy one of those olive drab L-shaped flash lights from a surplus store. they have many different colored (coloured in the UK) lenses and are pretty inexpensive. Have spare batteries, and an extra flashlight. can't tell you how many times I misplaced my primary light and had to use my spare. Good luck, you'll : enjoy it, and probably say: "I can't wait till I start getting paid to do this." My dad told me to wait till I have to do a night approach in bad WX. Enjoy!

Pilotpip

If you're at a towered airport, ask them to flash some light gun signals at you if they're not too busy. Controllers will be more than happy to oblige as they need to check the function of the light from time to time.

Ewfflyer

Damn you, you stole what I was going to say. Night perception does take awhile to attain. Every single student I taught did one, or both rough landings within the first 5. It's easy to get distracted by "other" lights in the area, focus on what you are supposed to be looking at on landing. Looking down the runway and using that periphial vision of the lights, not what's actually in your landing light, will help you feel your way to the ground.

uvmflier

You're entering an awesome part of your training man. There is nothing more thrilling as a student to be soloing the plane for the first time at night even if you are just buzzing around the pattern. I prefer night flight over the day. Oh yeah be prepared to start doing your flare and then suddenly bounce you've landed.

planecrazyjenn

Like everyone else said, it'll take you a few landings to really get the idea of judging your height and such. To restate important stuff, definitely get some experience with no lights. It'll happen eventually.

But to kinda add, and touch on what max briefly mentioned, study up on runway illusions. Night flying can really screw with you. Fly the same approach as you would during the daytime. If you have a VASI/PAPI, use it to your advantage...but don't fully rely on it because not all airports will have one.

Look through medical factors...such as autokinesis and how to scan for aircraft.

When you do your night cross countries, you'll realize your using your instruments, charts and VOR's (etc) much more because your landmarks/checkpoints will be different. Keep in mind you can't see as many objects as you can during the day. Towns can sometimes be good, if you live in the middle of no where. Following roads is nice if your not in a major city (we have I-81)...use good judgement when picking out your landmarks.

Take another glance at airport beacons and what their colors mean. Before you go to an unfamiliar field, glance again at the airport diagrams. Things look much different at night, and you'll find yourself utterly lost if you don't have an idea of what to expect.

Like someone mentioned, keep an eye out for clouds. They are much harder to spot at night. If you start seeing lights on the ground disappear, take action...your wingtip strobes will become nice and blinding if you start entering clouds too. Make sure to get a nice thorough weather briefing, and fly a bit higher if need be...especially if around terrain that isn't so emergency friendly. Try to have emergency landing locations in mind prior to departing. Know the terrain...if there's going to be lotsa mountains on your left, and open fields to your right...have a pre-emergency plan.

There's probably more I could add. I know I strayed into night cross country stuff, but you'll eventually need it anyway.

Have a blast with your night flying, and let us know how it all turns out. It's an absolute blast.

Jenn

dlevanchuk

thanks guys!!

did my flight last night (had to delay for a week..)

was doing pattern work at local airport KRNT (renton, wa). becomes uncontrolled at 9pm.

we took off around 8:30 did couple touch and goes with landing light and airport lights. did pretty well i think, my instructor was impressed. then he decided to do couple of landings with no landing light, side runway light. struggled the first couple landings, but got good flare on 3rd landings.

when airport became uncontrolled my instructor decided to shut down runway lights (5 flicks on the mic), and no landing light... now THAT was horrible :-D

i could not figure out where the runway was, and just decided to go with 50 feet to the right off VASI lights (landing on 15). i knew that the elevation is about 50 feet MSL, so i was trying to figure out how to land by altimeter, but it was waaaay more difficult than i imagined (especially on my very first landing). my body was freaking out too, feeling like I was turning, but turn coordinator showed that I was flying straight.

anyways. great tips guys! would have suffered that night with out all of these suggestions and tips!

planecrazyjenn

I'm so glad that you enjoyed your experience!!! It's something you'll always remember...and you'll be glad you did all the light out approaches. Glad you saw first hand how your body reacts to flight when you can't see outside. It'll give you a great pre-lesson on trusting your instruments for when you get to your IFR training. The body is a complex 'machine' and illusions are just one of the many things we learn to deal with.

Again, glad you had fun.

Ewfflyer

I love night, and of course my old job, that's about all I ever flew. Until last week, I had more night hours that single-engine hours(around 1400). I've had to land w/ no lights at an airport, a mix of 1/2 the lights working, etc.... Landing w/o a slope isn't a big deal to me, because I'm used ot the perception of night, but I remember early on it did take a little while to get. Good luck on continuing your traning!!!