VFR Night flying
I have to admit that everytime I get to fly around a large populous area at night with clear skies still excites me! I sit there and just realize that this is really what I want to do. Its amazing to fly over Downtown Orlando while trying to find the stupid airport beacon and runway identifier lights. I voluntarily turned off the map screen on the Garmin 530 (GPS Map system) so that I can just level up my night vision skills. It was awesome how situationally aware I was. I skirted around town at about 1400 feet which is right under the Bravo air space around that area and headed towards a good 45 entry for a left downwind for runway 7 at Orlando Executive Airport (KORL). As we got closer, we could see the airport lighting system for Orlando International Airport (KMCO). Its awesome just 'noticing' these things. The lights really kind of distract you more or less.
Flying back to Flagler, I did some commercial steep turns (not to PTS standards) and executed an awesome emergency descent. My landings (I did 6 in all) were awesome! I was feeling each one of them compared to the other night. These were definitely comparable to my day landings. I also asked to land at Flagler twice at night because of how different the environment is without lights and with the shorter, narrower runway. I transitioned accordingly and successfully executed both of them.
Tomorrow night, we're going to head to Opa Locka which is just north of Miami. I'm definitely looking forward to that flight because I have never gone south of Vero Beach. Miami, here I come!
Flying back to Flagler, I did some commercial steep turns (not to PTS standards) and executed an awesome emergency descent. My landings (I did 6 in all) were awesome! I was feeling each one of them compared to the other night. These were definitely comparable to my day landings. I also asked to land at Flagler twice at night because of how different the environment is without lights and with the shorter, narrower runway. I transitioned accordingly and successfully executed both of them.
Tomorrow night, we're going to head to Opa Locka which is just north of Miami. I'm definitely looking forward to that flight because I have never gone south of Vero Beach. Miami, here I come!
posted by elijah at 2:34 AM
3 Comments:
Night flying kicks serious ass!!! I love it.....but am shocked I haven't killed myself doing it. It can be quite a challenge. Enjoy it but respect it.
Since when do the crapenholes (or semenholes) at your school have 530s!?!?!?! I find that the 530 is still VERY bright even at it's lowest setting.
Well, its only one Seminole that has the 530. It has the 530/430 stack and autopilot while the other three just have 430s. Actually, the night setting does a pretty good job with the brightness of the screen. It isn't too distracting. The only thing that was blaring at us was the 3 green landing lights because they wouldn't switch with the day/night rocker. They were 3 BRIGHT GREEN on approach every single time. I guess its a good indicator though, esp at night to see something just shinning at you that brightly!
did you want me to post comments that are relavent to the subject of the post? if so, hmm lets see night flying huh? Well... when i went up with you guys last time i could see everything going on in the city. it was kinda neat seeing the traffic backed up on the freeways and knowing i was not in it! it puts the traffic into perspective bc you can see where it starts and where it ends. it's also a little voyeur-esque seeing people walk around their neighborhoods at night, you know i was watching out for trick-or-treaters! :) overall its a hell of a lot better than flying in 100 degree heat in the mini-plane!
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