Lesson 27 - Nightime Flying!

After a fun-filled weekend at the cabin celebrating my niece Senna's first birthday, I got to finish off the weekend with my first night flight. Part of the qualifying requirements of the Private Pilot License is to log 3 hours of night time flying including at least 10 landings (to a full stop) and a cross country of at least 100 nm. Tonight, I met Chris at 8:00 pm, it was still light out. We cannot count our time as official night flight until 1 hour after civil twilight. So, that made plenty of time to do a relaxed preflight and good conversation.

Once we were ready, we hopped in. Now after 8:30, the control tower retires, so we were communicating on CTAF our intentions. Also, we got to control the runway lights with our radio mic, very cool. 3 clicks for low, 5 for medium, 7 for high. So, the goal was to just do a few laps around the pattern to build my night-time experience, and get in as many full stop landings as possible. First time around was a different experience, I lost my bearings a bit coming off the upwind leg, very different flying in the dark, but it was very stunning to see the lights of the city and the airport! Landings went very good despite a slight crosswind, although many of the first few approaches I would come in quite low, after a few tries I adjusted for that. I bet that is because my last flying I did with Paul, the winds were much stronger, and I was getting accustomed to having that wind keep me higher, longer.

After 9 trips around, and 1 hour logged, it was time to call it a night. During debrief, Chris said we are going to do our cross country to Lake Elmo soon, I won't mention how soon since my Mom is likely reading this. :)

Also good news is that Chris thinks after tonight's flying, I am ready to receive my solo-endorsement back. It is very gratifying to know after taking almost 7 months off, I didn't loose the fundamentals. That checkride is looking closer and closer, I might just make my goal by end of May!

Oh by the way, I did take some pictures while flying, and they turned out absolutely terrible, hence the stock photo.