JEP FII-??: Night Cross-country

Goals:

• First night flight, with night landings, of course!
• Night x-c.

Flight:
Tonight I had my first night training flight. After the long holiday, I had a bit of trouble getting in touch with Chuck, and I was feeling a little (self-imposed) rush to get night time in at the beginning of this week since there was a full moon and later in the week new storms were to roll in. When he did get back to me, he suggested I contact Dan (the instructor who did my phase check) since Chuck wouldn't be able to fly at night this week. I did so, and Dan was gracious enough to trade shifts at his part-time job to free up his evening for the lesson. We arranged to meet at the airport at 5:45 and for me to have planned a x-c down to ASJ (Tri-County Airport in Ahoskie, NC).

I got to the airport early and preflighted in the dark. That took about twice as long as usual, and I kept feeling disoriented with my checklist. I think this was because I couldn't just hold my finger in place and quickly glance down to see what was next on account of needing an extra hand for flashlight management. (I had grabbed Husband's hat with bill-clip light at home but somehow neglected to actually put it in my flight bag, stupid me.)

When Dan got back to the airport from helping a friend ferry a plane from another local airport, we met up and chatted for a while about night-flight topics. Empty-field myopia, where you stare at one spot and it kinda blanks out. Rods (movement) and cones (color) and using peripheral vision more. False horizons, and being diligent about checking instruments to keep oriented. Target fixation. The tendency to flare too high for landing and how to use the REILs to combat that. We looked over the route I had picked, then adjourned to 388.

After we hopped in and got situated, I started the next checklist, which begins with "Preflight inspection - complete." Since it had been 20-30 minutes since I did the preflight, I did a quick recall and remembered that I had chocked the plane (but not tied down) when I went to the flight school to meet Dan. Aha! Good. Hop out, unchock, re-situate. No embarassing attempts at departure with the wheels chocked!

After starting up, I spent a minute experimenting with lighting options. 388 has a fantastic red dome light that was beyond perfect for illuminating the instrument panel. Really, I wouldn't change a thing about that. For reading checklists and sectionals, however, it wasn't sufficient and I was regretting not having the hat light. I had two flashlights, one for a backup, and neither was particularly convenient to manage. One had a clip, so if I had a shirt pocket that might have been easy, but I had a thick fleece sweater on. The other had a short lanyard, wrist-sized, but a dangling device wasn't appealing. Dan's flashlight was on a neck lanyard, and that seemed like a workable arrangement, so I'll try that next time (or remember the hat!). I ended up holding the clip flashlight during the whole flight except for takeoffs and landings; that one has the push-the-end-for-temporary-light-or-twist-for-constant, and the push-style was most useful for short checks of the papers.

Eventually we got going. I always use the beacon and strobes, but Dan emphasized that they're required for night flight, which makes perfect sense. The landing lights were useful for taxiing, and my confidence in where the wings end was definitely compromised by the darkness! I thought my distance-judging skills were bad in the daylight -- that's nothing! Let's just say it was a slow, cautious and kinda tense taxi experience. Checking the rpm/oil/suction/amp gauges over in front of the right seat was more inconvenient in the dark during run-up, but not prohibitive. When ready to depart I flicked on the strobes and man are they bright. Dan recommended limiting their use to pattern and airport vicinity, and turning them on at the last moment before taking the runway. I'd have to agree -- the extreme contrast and flickering effect is pretty hard on the eyes.

I keyed the mike according to instruction to turn the lights on -- 7 in 5 seconds for high, 5 in 3 for medium, 3 in 1 for low, and 3 slow clicks to turn off the blinding runway strobes.

Takeoff was no different than normal. I suppose perhaps I'm used to giving some minor awareness to the periphery when rolling since deer and turkeys live in the area, but the limited visibility due to the night eliminated that possibility, kinda like a runway tunnel.

While climbing out, maybe around 300' and after checking gauges and instruments, I took in my first few quick glances of the night. It was really breathtaking. Huge full moon over the glistening river, woods and fields and streets, neighborhood lights, the brewery was shining in its pocket of woods, tiny aircraft lights way up high... Very special.

But no time for that yet! It was time to get the flight set up. As we crossed the river and continued to climb, I got set up on the 233 heading to AKQ (first checkpoint) and then called Leesburg Radio and opened the VFR flight plan. Next it was Norfolk Approach to pick up flight following, and quickly we were handed to another Norfolk frequency and then to Washington Center, who advised us of traffic at 12 o'clock that we already had in sight. It didn't take long to be able to pick out the green-and-white beacon of Wakefield -- it proved to be much easier to locate in the dark than it is in the day!

I leveled off at 6500' for the cruise portion of the trip. While working down to AKQ we played two "games." One was identifying landmarks outside and trying to find them on the sectional, and vice versa. There was a school that was well-lit and on the map. Thanks to the moon, the big straight cut of road that connects several towns on the southside was visible; also on the map and the main daytime indicator that AKQ is nearby. The second exercise addressed emergency landing site selection. Since Dan and I are both familiar enough with the area to know that the vast majority of fields down there -- easily identifiable in the glorious moonlight -- are flat and unobstructed, they provide an obvious option although they specific choice must be more guarded and having nearby alternatives would be more important since a last-minute rethink might be necessary. We talked about roads as an option, which many people don't like and which also must be considered with utmost care and reservation. If the moon wasn't so fantabulous, picking fields from woods from water would be more difficult and thus the emergency decisions would be much harder.

Oh, another aspect of this trip that was new to me was fuel tank management. The placard on our fuel selector says single-tank operation is needed over 5000'. As we passed through 5000' we were across the river and so I chatted it over with Dan for a minute and then reached down and clicked it to the right tank. This all happened very quickly: I felt it slip past the right tank (towards off!) ever so slightly, and was backing it up to rest in the notch when Dan took it and seated it. How did he know I had missed it? How did he possibly have time to get his hand down there between the time when I went past and started to go back? Literally, it was like 3/4 of a second. There was no change in performance. I understood that he'd check it after I switched, but the quickness with which he was on it surprised me. He did say right afterwards that had we gone for 10 seconds like that we'd be restarting the engine, but it would have been less than a second before I had seated it properly. I suppose he was ready to check it immediately after my switch so that I would not get first-hand experience in what happens when you screw up your fuel management, and that his response just came more quickly that I had anticipated. Anyway, I made a note of when the tank was switched.

We got to AKQ right on schedule. Sweet! (And I wonder why this time the DR worked out just right, whereas all my other attempts at DR to AKQ have failed miserably.) Next leg: 240 for 11 minutes to the town of Courtland, west of the town of Franklin, home of the Franklin-Rose Airport (FKN). FKN's beacon was easily visible from AKQ -- ~18 nm maybe. The towns were pretty easy to pick out based on size and relative locations. Awesome, going well. Well, almost going just right. We were two minutes late getting to Courtland. I adjusted the ETA for the next leg, a 6-nm hop to the teensy town of Newsoms, which we were skeptical that we'd even find: most of the stretch from FKN to ASJ is pretty empty.

We took a few minutes to talk again about false horizons and tricks our human eyes and brains play at night. Looking behind us at the peninsula, several things were apparent. For one, you can definitely tell where there's land v. water! Newport News and Hampton run together, wedged on the peninsula, and after a small break that is the James River entering the Chesapeake Bay, Norfolk and Chesapeake and other southern cities all clump together. We know that all of those city lights stop because the Atlantic ocean starts, but I could see how it would be easy to think they stopped because of a horizon. Another element of the city illusions was that the York River-bounded side of the peninsula runs basically at a diagonal, so I could also see how it would be disorienting to think that a line of city lights at a slant in front of darkness might be the horizon. Another thing was that some haze was apparent, and it somewhat blurred the line between land and sky. The haze was lit from above by the moon, and probably from below by the cities. We'd see more about this effect soon enough...

We did find something that we decided was Newsoms, and were two minutes late here as well. Our heading seemed ok still, so perhaps the wind had just picked up a little since I wrote up the numbers. With only 20 miles to the airport, I didn't think that trying to recalc in the dark while fumbling with a flashlight would be worth it. The next waypoint was Murfreesboro, a bastion of civilization in the VA/NC countryside, in 12 nm. A thin layer of clouds was forming up below us and to the east, and while we could probably see Murfreesboro, we decided it was time to descend to get a clear view of the ground and also just because of proximity to the destination. After alerting ATC of our intentions to descend to 3000' and being instructed to maintain VFR, I started the descent. The clouds proved to be at ~5000', and no course alteration was required to stay clear of them; they were entirely to our left, but in fact they were preventing a clear view of Murfreesboro. As we got lower we found that we were farther west of the town than planned, but could clearly see the ASJ beacon.

I continued our descent as we tuned in the AWOS to find calm winds. I chose to circle the airport and enter crosswind since we still had some altitude to lose for a landing on 19. My plan was that since no one else was around and the winds were calm and we wanted to go back north that I'd depart runway 1. The night pattern was normal, using the runway lights for reference was no different procedurally than using the runway itself, and the only part that was a little sketchy was not having a clear view of treetops on final, but Dan recommended a little extra precautionary altitude and it turned out just fine. I did use the VASI this time, and just after turning final was on the glide path it signaled, but then applied that little bit of extra height and so watched the double-whites until I could see the transition from dark trees to lighter (dead) grass, at which time the runway and the horizontal strip of red lights marking the other end became the focus.

Sooner than I anticipated Dan said to start my flare. The typical response for pilots new to night landings, I understand, is to flare too high, thinking they're lower than they actually are. Perhaps my feeble brain was overly aggressive in countering that impulse and went the other way. Turns out we were just right and had a very nice landing, slightly left of center.

I rolled to the end, and since no one was around I turned us around on the runway and quickly cleaned up, organized my papers for the next leg and prepared to depart. We took a quick look at the fuel selector (which had been switched back to both for the descent) and I gave it a practice turn in each direction before returning it to both.

We departed straight out and tuned in the FKN VOR for the return trip, estimated to take about 32 minutes that we'd fly at 3000' to ensure the clouds we saw on the way down couldn't increase below us going home. Radial 027 would take us to it from ASJ, then 034 would send us to JGG. Once established on 027, it was time to call FSS and close the JGG->ASJ flight plan. The Cofield VOR (CVI) was nearby and was a remote for Raleigh FSS but required transmitting on 122.1 and listening over the VOR freq. Dan dialed it in and made it the active nav freq. We identified the Morse code and then I tried to hail Raleigh.

In retrospect, I think Dan and I had miscommunicated about the frequencies -- obviously we were listening on the VOR freq (the Morse code was ID'd) and the com had 122.1 in it. I should have said "Raleigh Radio, 35388 is listening on ", but instead Dan had said to tell them I was transmitting on 122.1. At the time I thought they shouldn't care what I'm transmitting on, they care what I'm listening on, but he's the instructor so I did as told and got no response, twice. Between tries, Dan tapped my VOR indicator which was showing the needle fully deflected to the right. I was surprised but couldn't eliminate the possibility that I had drifted that far since I was preoccupied with the nav and the sectional and whatnot and we were relatively close to the VOR. So I chased it with a good turn to the right and had probably gone through 45 degrees of heading before I realized that the wrong VOR was active in the nav. Duh. I pointed that out to Dan, who said "Good catch." That was probably a test. So I switched FKN back up to active and reaquired my radial, then back to CVI for attempt #2.

Dan's next suggestion was to pick up flight following and then we'd try another frequency for FSS. We were almost immediately handed off by Wash Center to Norfolk Approach, and next to nothing was going on on those airwaves, so Dan suggested just asking if they could close the flight plan for me. The fella had been super nice, so I was a little surprised when he didn't come back with an acknowledgement or anything. After a minute of silence, he asked if we had a number for it. That confused me, and I asked Dan if he meant something other than 1-800-Wx-Brief; Dan said just to tell him the outlet and see where it went from there. I said that we had filed with Leesburg Radio (shoulda just said Leesburg) and had been unable to hail anyone yet to close. After another few moments of silence he came back saying that Leesburg had my cancellation. I thanked him in the best sweet girl voice I could conjure.

Ok, back on track. Soon enough we were on the 034 radial outbound to JGG, leaving Franklin, with the Newport News sprawl getting closer. Dan pointed out the bend in the river with the power station brightly marking the southside point across from the airport, though we were still too far out to pick out the airport.

I was hoisted by my own petard again on this last bit. As we continued up, I was scanning and putting together the light puzzle, working from NN and the power station and all that, searching for the JGG beacon. Aha! A green flash. There it is; outside of the city lights so it's not PHF, too far up river to be Fort Eustis. So I consciously stopped holding my radial and headed for the beacon. As I made this decision, Dan was pointing out PHF and we chatted about the ILS clearances for inbound pilots we were hearing over the radio. A few minutes later, I reacquired the beacon and that's when I realized my folly: green-white-white. That was Fort Eustis, not JGG. Crap.

I admitted my mistake to Dan, who then asked me what I was going to do. The first plan that came to mind was to dial in the Harcum VOR, knowing that the 188 outbound radial was part of the instrument approach to JGG; that would be the backup. For visual acquisition, I'd need to look west of that FAF military beacon. By this time I could make out Jamestown Island and knew the airport to be just beyond it. But I couldn't see the airport yet, and neither of us found a beacon there. We agreed that we were basically there, so I cancelled flight following so we could switch over to CTAF and activate the runway lights. From out there I never saw the lights lining the runway, but the runway is a cut through the trees so that wasn't terribly surprising. What I did see, however, was a short, neat line of bright white lights that conceivably could be end lighting. Dan confirmed, so I began the descent. We were going to be way high, so I executed an S-turn over Jamestown Island to buy us some time. That was pretty weird, and didn't quite feel right in the dark. I thought back to the flight training articles warning that the vast majority of accidents happen during maneuvering flight.

But we got down and into the pattern for right 13 and it was just fine. The winds had picked up some and were blowing me into the runway pretty good, which I didn't notice until he pointed out that I was getting kinda close. I was looking back periodically to judge my position relative to the runway, but I admit that I was also trying to savor the last few moments of the first night flight and also taking stock of how the usual daytime visual queues for key pattern points are invisible. A little crab took care of that. On final I had a pretty good right crab in, but was happy with the stable track of runway centerline. Below the trees I was able to straighten out without having to slip (the trees broke the wind) and had a good landing.

And for the record, we never, ever saw the JGG beacon; perhaps it became inop. no NOTAM regarding its status before we left...

Discussion:

1. Picking a night route: Part of this lesson was to do cross-country planning with visual checkpoints and dead reckoning navigation. The challenge, of course, is finding items on the sectional that you think will be easily identifiable in the dark.
   
   On the first half of the route going down, there were some reasonable choices. Towns. Airports. A school (assuming it would look like a school at night from 6500'). The second half, however, not so much. At one point there was a cluster of towers marked on the map, but they weren't the icons with a flashing light at the top so I didn't know whether they'd be lit (man I hoped so! and it turns out that cluster made an excellent checkpoint) and couldn't rely on that for planning.
   
   I also realized from this first experience a little something about using cities as checkpoints. First, some cities -- townships or villages, rather -- are on the map but really don't make good checkpoints because nearby neighborhoods have more lights on. Second, some cities run together (like NN and Hampton) so more specific checkpoints would be needed. Third, and this kinda goes with numero dos, a city may stretch for several miles so having a clear idea of "city center" or "western edge" or "trailer park on the outskirts" is advisable.


2. DR, winds and climbout: So, you know the winds at the airport and the winds at your cruise altitude. What's the correct way to calculate DR parameters, adjusted for wind? First, it seems obvious to pick a first checkpoint at the beginning of cruise, since after that the number of variables should be reduced and thus the error should be minimized. Getting to that first checkpoint, though... It doesn't seem right to use the winds aloft at 6500' to determine groundspeed, distance covered and timing when climbing from field elevation of 49'. Nor does it seem correct to use the AWOS winds. Nor does it seem realistic to break the calculations down into 1000'-increments and get data for each "layer" of the climb. So there's the question: What's the proper way to determine the parameters for the climbing leg?


3. Raising the bar: I know I've said it before and I'll say it again: it's really awesome to know you're making progress when things that seemed stressful just a few flights ago no longer take a second thought. Talking to controllers is no problem, carries no intimidation anymore. Landing at new airports, even in the dark, is no biggie. :)


4. Spotting traffic: Picking out other traffic was easy at night, and I like that. There were no other aircraft near us, so I didn't get a good feel for how the perception might be different, say in the traffic pattern, in deciding how your path might cross another plane's, but finding them to begin with was simpler in the darkness, even when the background was a city. Is this how it's supposed to be, or was it a product of the conditions, or am I fooling myself?

Self-Assessment: More polish, more practice!

Flying
• Preflight, taxiing, normal takeoff, short/soft-field takeoff: Good.
• Maintaining airspeed, stalls, slow flight (VR/IR), maintain/change attitude/altitude/heading by instruments: Good.
• Recover attitude, altitude, heading by instruments: Acceptable.
• Forced landing: Good, need more practice.
• Forward slip:: Dunno, needs more practice.
• Pattern, normal landing, directional control after landing: Good.
• Crosswind landing: Decent.
• Radio work: Good.
• Short/soft-field landings: Good, will get more practice.
• Night operations: Good, will get more practice.

Navigating
• ADF: Haven't used it since the intro, needs practice.
• VOR: Good, will get more practice.
• Dead reckoning: Improving but needs practice.

Next: I've got the plane Saturday morning/afternoon for another x-c. I would like to do something different, but I've gone to most of the area that's in "short" cross-country distance. I was thinking of going back to Elizabeth City because it's an interesting flight and would get one of the two remaining required towered-airport landings (although maybe some of the 8 night landings will be at PHF). An alternative would be to fly up past Richmond and hit Charlottesville (also towered) and back. Either of those should easily get the 2.1 x-c hours I have left to do. But you know what I realize? I had been hung up on those numbers but now that it's FUN it seems so easy and kinda sad that they ONLY require 5 hours of x-c time! But the overhead of getting logbook endorsements and planning reviews... There'll be puh-lenty of x-c time after the checkride!

• Revisit stalls and maneuvers that have been neglected during the recent cross-country work and personal travels.

Hours logged this flight: 1.8
Hours logged total: 43.8 (38.1 counts toward reqs)
Instrument hours logged this lesson: 0.0
Instrument Hours logged total: 1.7
Take-offs and landings this flight: 2
Take-offs and landings total: 95
PIC (solo) hours total:: 11.7