PlasticPilot.net

It’s night VFR season again ! Even where airports close for private traffic at 10 or even 8pm, the shorter days allow for enough night time to exerise our night VFR privileges.

My night experience is not huge as you can see in my logbook. I trained for the night VFR rating mostly because it is a prerequisite for instrument rating. The training was fun, flying at night is exciting and the view from the cockpit is really impressive.

Statistics show much more accidents per hours flown by night than by day, and this challenges both our navigation and spatial orientation skills. I personally use three rules to make my night flying as safe as possible: ready - in contact - cristal clear. Be ready
Each flight requires a detailled preparation, and this is even more true at night because looking for something in a dark cockpit is not exactly easy. Visual avoidance of obstacles is simply not possible at night, even with a bright moon. Antennas and buildings are lit-up, but this is not the case of hills and mountains, so avoiding them is a question of navigation.

You have to plan your route and altitude so as to maintain ground clearance. Also on your alternate routing ! When planning your routes, also take care of restricted airspace, as by day. As it is not possible to use lakes, railways, motorways or towns to navigate, night VFR is mostly a radio-navigation and GPS exercise. Are you prepared for a GPS failure ?

Needless to say, an electrical failure at night is an emergency. Be sure to have a flashlight at hand, as well as a handheld radio, possibly with a VOR receiver, and a handheld GPS. I’m not a big fan of using mobile phones on board, but in case of electrical failure at night, having the number of a local ATC facility could be decisive.

Be in contact
Managing an emergency situation is much complex at night, and I don’t even talk about a precautionary landing. ATC can provide great help if you start getting disoriented, or give a good kick-start to the search and rescue teams if something more critical occurs.

In Europe, most of the flight information centers (FICs) - the “information” frequencies” - are not staffed at night. This does not mean you can’t be in contact with ATC. You can remain on local tower frequency even when outside their airspace, and if you go farther away, request to be transferred to an en-route control center frequency.

The ATCO will not offer a lot to you, but if any problem pops-up, he will already know about you, your route, and your intentions. If you’re not in contact, you will first have to find a frequency, which is not easy while managing an engine failure, and then tell the whole story to the controller (call-sign, type of aircraft, departure, destination, route, nature of the emergency)…

Crital clear weather only
Applying the “see and avoid” principle at night is very easy. It is even easier to spot strobes at night than a plane by day. The major issue with “see and avoid” when flying at night is that clouds are not lighted ! Ok, thunderstorm clouds are, but no way flying close to them, be it day or night !

Entering a cloud at night should not result in collision with terrain as long as the route is well planned. Spatial orientation is more challenging, but part of the night training is about maintaining a correct attitude with sole reference to the instruments. The two major risks when entering a cloud at night are carubrator and airframe icing, and collision with another traffic being in or near the same cloud.

My rule for night VFR is easy: 3000 feet above ground, 3000 feet below cloud, no rain, no fog, no haze.

Links
NTSB safety alert: http://www.ntsb.gov/alerts/SA_013.pdf
ASF hot spot: http://www.aopa.org/asf/hotspot/night_vfr.html