I flew at night for the first time yesterday. The air is smooth and you can see forever at night. It's quite beautiful, but does represent more risk. If the engine were to fail (which is no more likely at night than during the day as the engine doesn't know what time it is) it is harder to determine a safe landing spot as open fields are impossible to spot in the darkness.
We went to Bridgeport for touch & goes. Most people have more trouble landing at night because less light reduces depth perception. As it turns out, I seem to land better at night. These were some of my best landings! All my CFI and I can think of is that there are less distractions because of the reduced visibility and I focus more on the runway. Who knows?
There was one very strange part -- the take-off from BDR. We were using runway 6 which takes you right out into Long Island sound. This direction over the water offers NO LIGHTS and therefore no horizon. It's just black soup out the windscreen and reference to instruments is required for orientation. Once you turn upwind, the shore comes back into view on your right side, but until then, it can be disorienting.
No comments:
Post a Comment