Night Flight

Monday, June 22, 2009

Night Flight
Length: 1.5 hours
Total Time: 43.2 hours

My first night flight consisted of 9 full stop landings at Gary airport. Ten full stop landings are required in order to qualify for a Private Pilot Cert.

Preflighting and the initial briefs and run-up are all a bit more difficult because a flashlight is required. When looking and holding multiple things at the same time, it really is noticeable when a flashlight is in the mix.

The air is cooler at night and therefore is calmer than during the daytime. That makes the ride nice and smooth. Another noticeable difference regarding night flight is that traffic is much easier to see (assuming they have their beacon and navigation lights illuminated). Keeping a constant scan for any relative movement is much more particular when compared to looking for lights against a dark backdrop. The main thing to keep in mind is that clouds are pretty much invisible. Therefore, anything beyond the clouds would be concealed as well.

 

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)