Is it just me or is night flying more fun?

[night]

Everything seems so much more peaceful and relaxing at night.

[adam32]

Depends on the terrain...lots of lights over a big city sure, over mountains or plains with zero light...no thanks!

[r22butters]

352.2 total night hours. Only about 5 of those are over the desert in the middle of butt-crack nowhere,...there's a reason for that!

 

333.7 hours alone, over the city, at night, in a 22,...it doesn't get any better than that!

[WolftalonID]

352.2 total night hours. Only about 5 of those are over the desert in the middle of butt-crack nowhere,...there's a reason for that!

333.7 hours alone, over the city, at night, in a 22,...it doesn't get any better than that!

So your a vampire...explains everything.

[Eric Hunt]

It might look pretty, but those black bits are probably very inhospitable to a chopper falling from the sky.

 

As we used to say when teaching night touchdown autos to unlit landing sites (before the days of NVG, too) :

"Turn on the landing light at about 300'. If you don't like what you see down there, turn it off."

[Wally]

I like a nice night flight too. But, I generally operate in areas that I am very, very familiar with. Like a decade or so of routine flying, days and nights. There are fewer manned cruise missiles (general aviation airplanes) around, less convective, vis is usually better. Nothing like coming over the Blue Ridge and seeing Atlanta 90 miles away, unaided.

 

Not so fond of the mountains without NVGs, the mountains get bigger in the dark, but I know how.

Less fond of nights on novel trips unless I've had time to confirm facilities and conveniences en route.

 

I want, at the very least, a directable search light of considerable wattage (not too bright, a Nightsun will dazzle in some atmospheric conditions, you can see less outside the illuminated area) and 2 searchlights is better for scene/LZ work. And NVGs.

 

P.S. - were they requiring night solo no light touchdowns when you did MOI? (Shudder) I guess it's a confidence builder...

Edited February 6, 2017 by Wally

[crashed_05]

I don't get much night time anymore flying fires, but I do enjoy it; especially on goggles. To anyone just starting out in this industry, take advantage of any night time (and instrument) you can get while you can. It becomes quite valuable later on.

[AS350 pilot]

I'm pretty sure dark air produces no lift.

[Eric Hunt]

Wally asked:

 

 

 

were they requiring night solo no light touchdowns when you did MOI?

No, this was to allow the police helicopters (Pigs in Space, or the Pork Chpppers) to operate a single below lowest safe height over built-up areas. We had to take every pilot out every 6 weeks for a session of them.

 

Night SOLO touchdowns?? No, we had the instructor and other pilot in front seat, and observer in back seat with the NiteSun controller - instructor had hands full and couldn't use it, and "observer" couldn't observe a darn thing from the back seat. We had to give him directions - Turn on (wait 4 or 5 sec) left a bit, down a bit... full down (for the flare), full up (for touchdown, to see where we were crashing), and to avoid wiping it off its mount. Had some exciting nights...

 

This was back in the 80s, no swept-up glass cockpits, 1 nite sun, 1 useless landing light, no NVG,.

[Wally]

"Night SOLO touchdowns" were part of the 1970 MOI course for Primary IPs in the TH55. No landing light for 3 of them, it was... "interesting".

One did it in the left seat, which is the seat with the fuel tank behind it, so the pig is way left side low...

[Spike]

While over the urban areas, I’ll often go “off goggle” to enjoy the scenery. However, once we proceed over the back-holes, it’s “on goggle”. However, I never forget, some of the worst experiences I’ve had as a pilot was operating in a black hole and just because I’m now aided, doesn’t mean I’m not in the black. Either way, nights do seem to have calmer air and for sure, less traffic. Plus, the bad guys are much more active at night and a helicopter working with a dog can most certainly ruin their night….. Night rescues are a gas… And, if you work a machine at night, night FTA’s are a must, aided or unaided…..

[r22butters]

This was back in the 80s, no swept-up glass cockpits, 1 nite sun, 1 useless landing light, no NVG,.

Not knowing what a nite sun is I googled it and this is what I got,

 

...an obscure band from the early days of metal?

 

 

A couple cool songs, but I don't think they'll help my night flying much

[Eric Hunt]

No candles in that shot, Butters, but mine had 30 million of them. That's why it took so long to light up.

[Wally]

Look here:

 

http://www.spectrolab.com/searchlights/products/prod_sx16_ns.html

 

It is a fierce light source using an arc lamp and draws a fair bit of current, plus it's 'draggy'.

One was not to operate it within 50 feet of combustibles,it throws heat and light from the arc lamp.

With a variable focus one can illuminate BRILLIANTLY a very small spot or a very wide field, and direct it as desired.

Problems are (besides setting your LZ on fire when landing) if you are using it at range at night, all the atmospheric aerosols (dust, pollen, etc.) are lit and if the air is 'dirty' enough you can't see what you're lighting up. Even if you can see the spot, sometimes it is so bright that you can's see anything outside the spot- like mountains.

 

If I had a "perfect" night set up, I would have a Nightsun on the nose well forward of skids, and at least one other pilot directable search light,and factory spec landing, taxi lights and of course NVGs.

Edited February 10, 2017 by Wally

[SBuzzkill]

Wally, have you used an IR searchlight with NVGs? It's incredible for illuminating stuff on those dark nights. It's like headlights for your helicopter. The only time it will wash out your goggles is with lots of dust/grass clippings/etc getting thrown in front of it, or if you have a lot of obstacles right in front of your helicopter. But at that point you're close enough to have contrast again with your goggles.

Edited February 12, 2017 by SBuzzkill

[Wally]

NO IR, which I guess the company viewed as ineffective without goggles.

The company took a step backwards after deploying NVGs fleetwide 8-10 years ago and replaced a lot of searchlights with less effective more energy efficient installations. I couldn't tell when they were in operation when in flight they were such poor sources. We still had operational searchlights on paper, but beyond a hover they were useless.