Night flying

One of the things I've wanted to do since I got current is to go up at night with an instructor for a refresher flight. While I can't do that in my airplane, I can still do it on one of the flight school's planes so I made a reservation for this evening to spend some time with an instructor in a 172. While the weather looked a bit iffy, it was good enough to go flying.

I met my instructor at the appointed time, 7:00pm local time. The first thing we did was go out and perform the preflight inspection on the plane while there was sufficient daylight. After that, we spent about half an hour or so in his office going over the things to be aware of when flying at night. Once that was done, we walked out to the plane, got in, started it up, and headed out.

We headed north for a while as we discussed the unique aspects of piloting and navigating at night. For example, using the horizon as an attitude reference, and recognizing the presence of poor weather conditions. The weather in the area tonight was particularly conducive to the latter, as you could see how conditions were poorer in the distance off to the east. After flying north for about ten minutes or so, we headed back toward the airport to do some landings.

Because I'm pretty familiar with the area around the airport, it wasn't difficult to figure out where it was. Of course, that won't be the case if I'm flying to an unfamiliar airport at night so we discussed things to look for in that situation. We flew around to the south of the airport, then entered a right traffic pattern for landing on runway 15.

The approach and landing were without incident. I made a pretty good landing, which was better than I thought it would be since it had been a long time since I've been in a 172, and far longer since I landed at night. Fortunately, the lighting system had been improved considerably so they were quite a bit brighter. And, since the runway had been freshly paved last year, the markings were nice and reflective in the landing light's illumination.

We taxied back and went around again, then went around again. On the third trip, I was coming in high. I could probably have gotten back on the proper glideslope by cutting power and/or side slipping but I decided to do a go-around for the practice. We came around again and landed for a total of three landings. While the first one was the best, the other two were at least decent. After we were done, the instructor said he really didn't have anything to tell me. We taxied over to the tiedown spot, shut down, recorded the Hobbes and tach times, secured the plane, and went inside. He filled out the rest of the rental form, entered the info in my log book, and then we shook hands and headed home.

While the 172 does have different flying characteristics from my plane, it was clear that the experience I'd gained in my aircraft over the last year was benefitting me in tonight's flight. It was especially apparent when landing. My landings were much more confident and smooth than they were the last time I was in that plane in late 2020.

Overall, tonight's flight was a sublime experience. I'm really glad I did this. I'm now confident that I can fly my plane at night and land it successfully. One thing I do need to do is purchase a light I can wear on my head. Several are available at various online retailers. The instructor had one that worked pretty well, even though it wasn't specifically for aviation use, so I'm going to check it out.

Getting back to my plane, before my appointment with the instructor, I stopped by my plane to check on a couple things and clean some bird droppings off of the wings that had accumulated over the past few weeks. When I opened the door to my plane, I saw something that sort of made the whole situation with engine that much more real. I'm hoping that this will be removed while there's still some good flying weather left this summer.