OGE Posted November 15, 2014 Report Share Posted November 15, 2014 Flying at night in cities yes, love it. Flying at night in the boonies where I can't see a damned thing under me, no don't like that at all.Prefer an auto onto a lit road over pitch black darkness... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aeroscout Posted November 15, 2014 Report Share Posted November 15, 2014 If I have to fly over inhospitable territory unaided, I like it better at night. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wally Posted November 17, 2014 Report Share Posted November 17, 2014 If I have to fly over inhospitable territory unaided, I like it better at night.You can turn the landing light off if you don't like what you see...? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akscott60 Posted November 29, 2014 Report Share Posted November 29, 2014 I will say flying mixed-multiship with tactical lighting in red illum while at low level under NVGs sucks. A lot. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
avbug Posted November 29, 2014 Report Share Posted November 29, 2014 One of the most memorable, relaxing flights I've had was a night flight into Afghanistan. Crossing Pakistan, I watched a meteor shower. There was almost no radio traffic, virtually no air traffic, no turbulence, nothing. Just the quiet on a very clear moonless night, and a lot of shooting stars. Ethereal. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
achfly Posted December 29, 2014 Report Share Posted December 29, 2014 (edited) I will say flying mixed-multiship with tactical lighting in red illum while at low level under NVGs sucks. A lot.Who cares about illum? switch to FLIR Edited December 29, 2014 by achfly 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AS350 pilot Posted December 31, 2014 Report Share Posted December 31, 2014 Dark air produces no lift. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silver-eagle Posted January 2, 2015 Report Share Posted January 2, 2015 Frank Kingston Smith spoke of "engine rough" when flying over water. If you have little experience with something like night flying or over the water, all those strange sounds seem intensified. While I would much rather fly at night, there are so few destinations for a private pilot to go. I've managed several hours in a fixed wing at night in the last year having spent the day at family events, museums, and dinner. My night hours in a Schweizer were to complete my training requirements. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astro Posted January 2, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 2, 2015 You just need to find a nice picturesque city to fly around. As for strange sounds at night and over water, never heard any myself? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R22139RJ Posted January 12, 2015 Report Share Posted January 12, 2015 Night time means $ time! My busy season is sundown to sun up, gotta keep the bees happy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rotormandan Posted January 12, 2015 Report Share Posted January 12, 2015 Night spraying creeps me out. How do you stay outta the wires? We only fly night to get to the 1st job or back after the last. I've got more night t/o then landing. I understand you can make some good $$$ spraying in CA though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R22139RJ Posted January 12, 2015 Report Share Posted January 12, 2015 That video was a training flight I took another pilot on but with a load I have the lights set up so one is bright in front and one points power line height 1/4 mile out. The area where I'm at 95% of the time you can go under them. If not make sure you are looking at poles, or trim parallel the lines so you don't have to dive in on them. I won't fly a field at night unless I have had time to scout in a truck during the day. CA is great $ but it's feast or famine. Everyone is planting trees and you can't compete with 100gal/ac with a ground rig. Trying to find something exciting and lucrative so I can leave ag. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
achfly Posted January 16, 2015 Report Share Posted January 16, 2015 That video was a training flight I took another pilot on but with a load I have the lights set up so one is bright in front and one points power line height 1/4 mile out. The area where I'm at 95% of the time you can go under them. If not make sure you are looking at poles, or trim parallel the lines so you don't have to dive in on them. I won't fly a field at night unless I have had time to scout in a truck during the day. CA is great $ but it's feast or famine. Everyone is planting trees and you can't compete with 100gal/ac with a ground rig. Trying to find something exciting and lucrative so I can leave ag.Wow. I don't care how bright the lights are. That still takes great skill and courage not to ball it up on the turn around. Hats off to you sir! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe_P148 Posted January 20, 2015 Report Share Posted January 20, 2015 I won't fly a field at night unless I have had time to scout in a truck during the day .That really is the trick, isn't it. Day Recon is extremely important. Do you have hazards on a moving map like wires and towers? Could you fly with NVGs? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R22139RJ Posted January 21, 2015 Report Share Posted January 21, 2015 I usually mark my field maps with the powerlines that are on the field and make notes if there is a particular hazard. Something like a telephone line or guy wire in a weird spot. I don't have any experience with NVGs. I've heard of 1 company that uses them to get to the field but doesn't spray with them on. The benefit of spraying in California is it's very localized and you spray the same fields often in a season and go back the next year. You get to know the area well. The hardest part is turning over a plowed or empty field. The crops give you depth perception at night. Kind of like why they put crap on the landing Ramps at the Olympics for the ski jumps (the crazy flip people). The huey I flew had 2 600w lights and the search light pointed forward. It was great. Its probably just stupidity and less skill. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gomer Pylot Posted January 14, 2016 Report Share Posted January 14, 2016 Another possibility for the light disappearing at night is clouds below you ahead. I once saw the light from an offshore rig disappear at about 2AM. We were headed home, fat dumb and happy, and the light just went out. I got busy with the weather radar, running the scale down to a reasonable level, and saw a cell dead ahead that was almost completely magenta, the highest level of precip that can be displayed. I told my cojo who was flying to alter course, and we went around it. We never saw the cell at all, too dark out there, but we did see the rig come back when we got around the cell. Without the radar, we would have flown right into the center of that thing. NVGs were merely a rumor back then. If lights disappear, be afraid. Very afraid. Even if you know there are no mountains. There may be other perils. I like flying at night most of the time, but not always. Just like in the daytime. It depends on what is happening otherwise. The theory that dark air produces no lift is wrong. Sunlight reduces lift, and the light from the sun that goes around the earth and hits you from below at night increases lift, while there is no sunlight above you to reduce it. Thus a huge net increase in lift at night. I never flew formation with goggles. They were introduced long after I quit. But flying at night in a large formation, with no external lights at all, keeping station using the instrument lights in the ship you're flying on, is interesting. You keep a really tight formation because if you drift off, you can easily lose sight, and then it really gets interesting. We landed in formation, with lead landing to one strobe held by a pathfinder, the rest of us just going to the ground, hoping not to hit anything big standing up, because nobody could see anything below. Better be ready to pull pitch when it was called, because you would lose sight if you were a little slow. I would have given a lot for the current NVGs, but we had no idea they would ever exist. Ah, to be young and stupid again, but then that's redundant. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nearly Retired Posted January 14, 2016 Report Share Posted January 14, 2016 Fly at night! Hell, at my age I don't even like to drive at night :-/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tradford Posted January 14, 2016 Report Share Posted January 14, 2016 I chose tonight to fly my 2 hour cross country night flight for my Commercial ticket. It has been a long time since I flew by myself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaybee Posted January 14, 2016 Report Share Posted January 14, 2016 I chose tonight to fly my 2 hour cross country night flight for my Commercial ticket. It has been a long time since I flew by myself. I was up last night, it is daaaaaaaaark ! on instruments dark, at times Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hotdogs Posted January 15, 2016 Report Share Posted January 15, 2016 Single ship night ops w/ NVGs are not a big deal. Flying in multiple aircraft operations with ordnance or over large bodies of water (not your small garden variety ponds or lakes) is probably the shittiest flying I've done. Landing on a ship in the middle of an ocean during extreme low light level conditions on goggles in dicey weather can be outright terrifying. I would fly day over night any given time but that's just because most of the night flying military guys do pretty much involves flying in multiple ship operations. Let's hope -2 in the four ship paid attention during his night syllabus and keeps a/c lighting condition correct and has the right expendables selected so the entire flight doesn't go blind when shooting off covert flares. ...oh and screw the new LED lighted towers that don't show up on your goggles. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jorry Pirot Posted March 9, 2016 Report Share Posted March 9, 2016 ...oh and screw the new LED lighted towers that don't show up on your goggles. 2 There's nothing more disconcerting than not seeing one until you notice it going by the side window in your unaided peripheral... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts