(Michael) wrote:
I'm glad you recognize where the big issue is on the approach. See,
when you do them at night, especially if the visibility is less than
perfect, this becomes obvious.

Night is good practice, if only because there are so many ground lights
to confuse you. For example, on the ILS-16 at HPN, if you're a little
left of the localizer and correcting back to the right when you look up
at maybe a mile or two out, you'll see yourself perfectly lined up with
a line of white lights. The only problem is, it's not the approach
lights, it's I-684. The illusion that it's a runway is really hard to
fight if you've never seen it before.

You really need to stay on instruments until you're absolutely sure
you've identified the runway visually.