Night Flying

No, I haven't lost my mind. The picture is St. Petersburg at night. If it looks dark, that's because it is. I had my first night flight yesterday. My oldest son and brother, who are here for Christmas, rode along. In hindsight, night flying may not be the best way to introduce someone to general aviation.

After taking off at Whitted, Rob had me head west for the Gulf of Mexico. He had a lesson in mind that I had not anticipated. As we got over the beach, he announced that we were headed for the abyss. We flew out over the Gulf for a little instrument practice. I didn't put on a hood or foggles, but over water without land in view, a hood is not necessary for instrument work. Everything was black. I could see nothing outside the plane. Rob had me make a couple standard rate turns to specified headings and practice climbs on the instruments. On my part it took a lot of concentration. After we landed, my son said it was sort of horrifying. Living on the coast, it would be tempting to fly over water to Key West or another coastal destination. Rob wanted to show me what I would be in if I attempted such a thing at night.

After instrument work, we turned back toward the coast and headed for St. Pete Clearwater International (PIE). PIE is class D, and the largest airport I've landed at. We were instructed to make straight in for runway 9, following two other light planes. Traffic is a lot easier to see at night, but the airport is not. I could see the beacon from the beach, but I could not make out the runways until we were fairly close. I was truly grateful for the VASI, without which I probably would have been all over the place on my approach. Rob said I would flare too high because of the difference in perspective at night. He was right and I smacked the runway pretty good. We taxied back for departure to Whitted. Taxiing past airliners was cool.

Back at Whitted, I flew the pattern for five more landings. They were much better than the one at PIE. Rob had me make one with the landing light off. I couldn't see the asphalt until we were sitting on it, but the landing was good.

I forgot to turn on my GPS logger for this trip. I didn't realize that we were going to PIE before the flight or it would have been on. However, Drew did get a good video of my landing at PIE: Landing at PIE Sorry about the quality of the video. Google did it. It is quite good seen at full resolutuion

Next Tuesday we're flying to PIE and Venice (VNC) at night. I want to go to Venice during the day. There's a good restaurant on the beach that's only a short walk from the airport. Guess it will have to wait.

Thanks to all who read this blog. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do writing it. And... Have a very merry Christmas!

Statistics:

Dual Instruction Time: 19.1 Hours

Solo/PIC Time: 13.0 Hours

Landings: 116