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Night Flight

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sourdough44

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I thought I would do it by the book & went for a night flight last night. I took off while it was still pink & flew to the required 1 hour after sunset for the landings. 1st I checked my lighting in a darkened hanger, I still brought plenty of flashlight options. The interior panel lights were adequate, & the dim-able overhead light(red) picked up any slack on the panel that was needed.

It was nice & smooth and very clear. I flew a little higher than usual & with just me in the plane I felt like a rocket, cool out too. My 1st landing was at a tower controlled airport, with & without the VASI operating, (7000 ft runway). Then is was back to my home drome, shorter but also a VASI.

My Warrior has the wingtip landing lights & once down near the runway the visual is nice & bright. I suppose I could of done a landing with the landing light off, maybe next time. It was a very fun flight. I did do a little more preflight prep than I may do for the average day VFR flight, mostly just having my pubs layed out & looking over airport info ahead of time. I also made sure I could easily dim the 696.

If the weather cooperates I may have a central MO trip in early Nov & I wanted to keep my options open. I used to fly my previous C-140 often at night, but haven't done any light A/C night flying for many years.
 

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