Night Flying

May 1, 2011

Tonight was a night of several firsts. Matt and I met at 7pm. It was raining lightly so I decided to do the preflight inspection before the rain picked up. We then discussed night flying for an hour or so. Afterward, we headed out to the plane and taxied out to Runway 36. I've never really been around an airport at night before, and have never been in an airplane at night. Right before takeoff I start getting really excited. We lift off and head out north to the practice area. Because of the rain, we ran into some low clouds and thick haze. I have never flown through or above clouds, or in rain as a pilot either. That certainly made it even more exciting. I wish I could have had a better opportunity to actually see the towns all lit up, but the weather made it a bit difficult. We could see the bigger towns, but the smaller ones weren't as visible. Nonetheless, it was still pretty neat and it gave me some extra real life instrument flying practice, even though we were still technically flying VFR.

After heading back to the airport, we set up to land. I've been told landing at night is a lot different than landing in daylight. The first landing went pretty well, considering I forgot to turn the landing light on... The next four landings were also pretty decent. I think only one of the total five landings, I misjudged my distance and almost (or maybe I did) stalled the airplane during the flare. Matt and I quickly worked through it and safely put the airplane down.

After taxing back to the ramp, Matt parked the plane then taught me how to tie down the plane. The rope knots are easier to tie than I was expecting.

Everything at night is different. It was a wonderful experience and I'm definitely looking forward to our night cross country coming up. Hopefully it's not raining this time.