Instrument Training at night? Good Idea or not?

On 9/20/2005 12:45, xyzzy wrote:

wrote:

As far as instrument training at night, there are good things and bad things.
The only real bad thing is it may be more difficult to read charts and such over dim
and/or colored cockpit lighting. If you're still still learning the intricacies of
reading IFR charts and plates, that can add a bit of congestion to your already
overloaded head.

Yes, I started IFR training in the winter of last year and did a lot of
basic manuevers and chartless approaches (talked through it by the
instructor) at night. By the time I was doing aproaches and flying
with charts, it was light at my usual training time. Now that it's
gettting dark earlier, I'm surprised at how hard it is to put together
two things I did well independently (maneuver at night under foggles +
use charts).

I too saw this the first time I did a cross county IFR training flight
at night. I had to look at the chart and determine on which bearing
I was from various VORs along the route.

There is a larger work load when having to point a flashlight at the
chart, then at the panel to scan the instruments, then back to the
chart, etc.

It would have been easier if my light had been brighter, but there's
a cost associated with that (in reduced night adaptation).


On the plus side, lots of the subtle visual cues that you get while wearing
foggles aren't there. The small peripheral vision leaks out the side of the foggles,
the sun changing angles on the instrument panels, etc.... those are pretty much gone
at night. You'll have a more realistic environment to train for true "lack of outside
references."

I disagree with this. When at night under the foggles, when you fly
over towns or cities, the glow from the ground is really noticeable in
your peripherial vision. Because of this I feel like at night I'm
actually getting more visual cues than I should when under the foggles.

I agree with this as well. While training, I used to try to ignore all
the visual cues (and was able to get disoriented from time to time) -
flying at night didn't make this any easier... but I was flying over
the valley between Oakland and Sacramento - not the darkest part of
the planet to be sure.



IMO the best VFR conditions for hood training are hazy southeastern
afternoons.


Of course, as others have said - nothing beats actual IMC for giving
you respect for IMC ;-) If any pilot (or prospective pilot) hasn't
experienced it yet, they should grab an instructor and go do it; regardless
of their Instrument Rating aspirations. It will really open your eyes -
Especially if you think "How hard can it be?" ;-)


--
Mark Hansen, PP-ASEL, Instrument Airplane
Sacramento, CA