When I first got my ticket in 1999/2000, I racked up 200 hours in that
first year. I would say over 50 of them were night PIC.. a few were
non-solo.. but much of my "time building" happened at night because I
worked night shift, so if I had a night off, I went down to the airport
and did a short XC from SPX (now closed) to either CXO (Conroe) or BPT
(Beaumont). Always did flight following, always able to see the city
lights or highways as I went. Great confidence builder for stretching my
legs. I also got to play with "close" dew point spreads (less than 5 deg
F) and once or twice ended up turning a night flight into a daytime
return when it started socking in with ground fog (or the ASOS spread
started closing)..

Make a trip or two with an instructor to get the feel of some local
night destinations. Try to be considerate - pick a place thats not a
residential airpark.. dont make repetitive patterns.. but get comfy with
night ops. One other thing.. my wife (now ex) thought I was a flashlight
freak.. but.. I never carried less than 4 separate light sources with me
at night.. i have gone from maglites to chemlites to now LED's.. but I
always made sure I had plenty of backup to see the panel if electricals
didnt work right.

I also had a CFI have me run through a few "no landing light"
approaches/landings and a few "no runway light" approaches/landings.
Neither is something you would WANT to do regularly, but having done a
few takes some of the pressure off of being FORCED to do one unexpectedly.

Dave

G. Burkhart wrote:
A question to the group. Do you normally fly many night solo cross
country flights? I have been going out to the local airport every couple
months to do some night flying, but it's usually solo just around the patch
to get night current so I can carry a passenger at night. The few times that
I have done cross countries at night, I either have a passenger (usually
pilot rated too) or an instructor (during training a few years ago).

I was going to do a short night XC a couple weeks ago and took off, got
about 10 miles out and didn't 'feel' right so I returned to the pattern. It
was probably just me, but it seemed like some strange noises from the plane
that I don't notice during day flight. If I have a passenger, I'm not as
concerned about flying XC at night. All of my night flights have been when
there is close to a full moon so visibility isn't a factor.

-Greg B.