Lesson 23

After cancellations because of weather and a scheduling mixup, I finally got the first of two night flights in yesterday. The weather briefer went on about icing, but the conditions were actually quite good for November, light breeze, temperature around 40, occasional stars visible through a high broken layer.

We took off through a few bumps from a very quiet airport. I couldn't have navigated to Easton on my own - the landmarks were hard to pick out and a very strong tailwind was pushing us along a lot faster than I've seen before. When we arrived in the airport area, I had a very hard time picking up the runway lights. The air was smooth above 1000 feet but in the Easton pattern I struggled with wind and even seeing the runway so I didn't fly the rectangular pattern well at all. We did five stop-and-goes. Actually we landed, stopped, back-taxied, and took off again. There was no one else in the pattern so we had it to ourselves. The landings were pretty ugly because I had a hard time judging height in the flare.

We departed for the return flight and this time it was easier to find landmarks, but I would have gotten lost in the big dark area near the airport if I had been alone. We entered the pattern and I struggled with altitude, getting too low, until established on final. The last landing was the worst, with two bounces, and I don't know how much was me and how much was the instructor fighting me on the controls. He said everyone has trouble in the dark there because of the lack of lights in the airport area.

So I'm glad that's done. The next flight should be a dual cross-country at night.