Chicago Aviation

Night Cross Country (dual)

Length: 1.8 hours

Total Time: 48.1 hours

My trip to South Bend started one hour after nightfall. I've done some local work at night, but never a XC. Luckily, Chicago gives quite a good reference point. Same goes for the lake, but the lake is a black area exactly the same as the non-lighted ground areas.

Although there are some rural parts (i.e., non-lighted areas) between Lansing and South Bend, it's not enough to cause any disorientation. Downtown Chicago is always visible, so there's always a solid reference on the horizon... at least when weather is good...

All of my checkpoints were airports for this trip. I made a non-direct path to South Bend, sacrificing length of the trip for safety. This also allows me a lighted checkpoints. Each time I was expecting to be in visual range of a checkpoint, I would look to see if I saw it already lighted. If not, I would click the pilot-controlled lighting on (using the freq listed for lighting, of course). It would light up, and there was my perfect checkpoint.

The green/white beacons were also helpful, but these weren't as 100% obvious to me. In the future, once I have more experience picking out the beacons from all other town lighting, perhaps I can get by on beacons alone.

Approaching South Bend was uneventful except for the large jet taking off on 09R when I was told to approach for 27L. The large jet departed with a tailwind and, although it moved much quicker than me, it departed the pattern as I was mid-way downwind.

I did a few 360s while the jet departed. This gave any wake turbulence a chance to dissipate, and it also allowed me a good look at a huge plane.

The return journey home was uneventful, but I did get get a bit confused with the horizon and the shoreline. It's just another example of how flying at night can easily disorientate.