I close down the airport that I work at and go out to my plane to perform the preflight inspection. It's cold. It's dark. It's quiet. The runways are lit up with red and white lights, the taxiways are lined in blue. I've always liked how an airport looks at night.
My instructor for the evening hops in the plane and organizes his things as I finish looking over the plane. Everything looks airworthy. I taxi us out to the runway and prepare for takeoff. My nerves start to rise as we lift off and I see that the ground is no longer visible; I can't see the trees, the buildings, or the river. What I can see is the gorgeously illuminated lights of the St. Louis region. We depart the area to the northwest while we contact St. Louis approach to receive flight following. On the way to our destination of Mattoon, IL we discuss things from night illusions, to weather, to airplane instrument requirements for night flying. We reach the halfway point of Vandalia and I see the airport beacon flashing its green and white lights. Out of curiosity we look for the actual runways; they're invisible. My instructor shows me a tip by tuning into Vandalia's radio frequency. He says, "click ur mic seven times and watch what happens." Click click click click click click click. The two runways ignite with color. Ah... Pilot controlled lighting. Ok that's seriously cool!
A half hour later we reach Mattoon. After a stop-and-go, we leave the area and head back home. As we get closer, we can see the haze glowing as the city lights brighten the sky. We appear to be in the middle of the haze layer and a layer of clouds above. The moon peaks out to welcome us before disappearing again. It was a spectacular sight.
I decided that instead of going straight home, we would fly down by the Arch and see the city. Once we arrive I hand the controls to my instructor so that I can snap a few pictures. This is the first time that I've seen the Arch like this. It's was beautiful. This is why I fly.
After our downtown fly-by, we make our way back home and land. Night flying is certainly different than daytime flying, but with views such as the ones tonight, it's definitely worth staying up past my normal bedtime.
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