This week it's all about night flying! Night flying is a lot of fun and the views can be amazing, but it also comes with it's own set of unique challenges. Visibility, ground refence, cockpit resources and lighting... literally everything about flying changes when the sun goes down. So if it's been a minute since you've been in the plane at night, don't miss this week's episode of Behind The Prop!
Beyond staying night current with our three full stop takeoffs and landings, what can we do as pilots to stay proficient? That's the topic on this week's episode. Whether you've got thousands of hours of night time like Wally, or you are very inexperienced at night, we've got some great tips to make you better. So grab your red flashlight, turn off the lights, and crank up this week's all new episode of Behind The Prop!
Clear prop! Number two following twin traffic on 3 mile final. JB using runway 25 on a 4 mile final.
This is Behind the Prop with United Flight Systems owner and licensed pilot, Bobby Doss. and it's co-host: major airline captain Designated Pilot Examiner, Wally Mulhearn. Now let's go behind the prop!
What’s up Wally? Hey Bobby how are you? Fantastic, as always. This week is kind of a repeat of some topics we've talked about but never gets old. Today is all about night-flying here we are. We're halfway through summer Maybe just past halfway through summer and the days are getting shorter every day. And we're about to have a time change in a couple of months and we're going to do a lot of night flying coming up. So what should we be doing. What should we be thinking about. Today is all about night-flying. Wally, You fly big wide body aircraft. Any idea how much day and night you do. Like just percentage is that fifty-fifty, thirty-seventy, how much day and night do you do. The type of flying I do it would probably be fifty five percent day. Forty five percent night. nice. And I’m sure you see a lot of nice sunsets from forty thousand feet. Oh yeah and you know a lot of lot of flying that we do in widebody aircraft are red eyes. Especially if you're going west to east you're leaving in the middle of the night You know. I may leave Hawaii at eight o'clock Pm their time arrive in Houston Six seven in the morning. Yep been on a couple of those. Yeah and you know when we used to fly to Europe a lot. Most of the European flights leave late at night fly all night and get to You know get to Europe at ten or eleven in the morning so the majority of it is Nighttime to and obviously again pretty stuff and it while people. I hear people talk about is safe to fly night There's obviously different types of risk. But it's definitely safe to fly at night. I think you just have to your due diligence. So let's just run through some things that we think about that that we have taught at two people at this school that you have taught as a CFI in that you have seen or maybe administered on check rides and remind people Both your daughters and other students that you come in contact with some best practices for night flying. So one thing that I think very few people think of to do and I'm in a flight school environment so I think of teaching all the time is if you haven't flown at night in a while just get in the cockpit. Hook it up to external power or turn the master switch on for two or three minutes. Please don't drain the battery. And just get your bearings again in the dark in the cockpit. What right what. Light is eliminating. What instruments how do these dials. Work to dim or not dim. The lights maybe I can dim or not them a GPS. Maybe my iPad is on full bright, that would be terrible to take off in an aircraft and then the screen come on your iPad and it'd be one hundred percent and blind while you're trying to make your first turn out but it's going to cause some disorientation and stuff I big tip here is just sitting the aircraft. Get comfortable with a dark nighttime setting. Make sure you have access to things that you want to have access to in that cockpit and make sure you're acclimated Maybe you haven't flown this particular aircraft at night ever Be a great idea to sit in that aircraft and be prepared for what's going to be a flight In the dark yeah. Yeah and you know you're talking about the iPad. I mean if you go into foreflight under the settings. There are light settings dark settings there's all kinds of ways you can invert colors and do all kinds of things that that that may work better for you. But that's definitely something to think about and you know probably at eleven o'clock at night when you're hopping in an airplane isn't the time to be trying to learn. Learn these settings in foreflight. Yeah right and if you do happen to have it on your phone or iPad You just click the settings button the first thing that the very top is a little slide rule for brightness and that'll change the brightness of your screen not just the application so it's very helpful and very useful
Yeah one thing that we discovered in our 172 is we have We have a Garmin 530, but we also have a 696 which is basically a VFR GPS that was in the airplane before we put the 530 in. It's kind of over on the on the side but it's a real nice big map display and what we discovered is that you can dim that. The problem is that when you get back on the night flight then you come back the next day. And it's daytime. If it's dim you can't see the screen to figure out how to brighten it up. Is it have touchscreen or soft buttons? It has soft buttons, so you can't see anything so what we've learned. Is that if we do. Fly that airplane at night that when we come back again and put it in the hangar. We go in there while we can see the screen and brightens things up for the next day because again most of what we do is daytime. One thing that good friend of mine always talks about is he says you know. The engine doesn't know that it's nighttime and sure. Sounds like and. I think we all anybody who's flown at night can relate to the engine making funny noises at night I know the first time. I flew over a large body of water on one of my solo across countries. It was the Mississippi river is probably only two thousand feet. That river is really wide and I promise. That engine started coughing. As soon as I got over that water But yeah the engine. The engine really doesn't know that it's nighttime But obviously your options are less. They're less visible at night. If you do lose an engine and that's the next big one is well allow a little bit more time to prepare because you're going to need it You might need it in the air as well so fly a little higher. Let’s talk about both of those real quick.
Why am I fly little higher at night than during the day well altitude gives you time it gives you distance to if you're higher and you do have to. I mean we're talking about engine failure here for the most part. If you lose an engine the higher you are the more time you have. Before you're going to touchdown and the larger your radius of available landing spots so You know two thousand feet. You don't have a whole lot of time. let's say the airplane descends it Let's just make easy math here. Five hundred feet a minute at two thousand feet. You got four minutes. That's assuming you're really good. Hold on eight thousand. You got sixteen minutes and let longer. Yeah and I think allowing time isn't just on the ground. We'll talk about that in a minute but allowing more time for the flight to occur. Itself I think. I was taught early on it flying a lot between Houston and Austin my instructors would tell me why not fly over here five miles east. Sorry five miles south of my line. Mind my direct to line and be right over to this. Big freeway called 290 all the way to Austin. Yeah why not track that. Yeah what does that benefit me. Well there's tons of lights for six lanes on both sides of the of the centerline right. it's not too busy at nighttime. If I have an engine failure where do you think. I'm going to land right. And that's going to be the best choice. If I don't I don't have an airport. I'm I’ve got a runway. That's about two hundred miles long right on my route but it does take me fifteen minutes longer to fly that route because I got to get over to the road right and I got to get back off that and kind of come back so I got allow for more time on that flight. What's changes my fuel from day to night and other things but makes a lot of sense to track a big road like that if you have that option as well. Yeah and they're all be difference of opinions on landing on roads versus landing not on roads. I would like the idea of landing on a road. I would like to land on something. Concrete or asphalt But I appreciate. I can understand the philosophy of not landing roads because you have bridges. You might have power lines. Might have signed. You might have cars to deal with but the other side. That is all right. If you don't want to land on a road landing close to a road is probably a good idea to just for Getting help in an emergency service and this road were speaking of is a major highway between Houston and Austin two of the top twenty cities in the united states. This road feeder roads are probably bigger than most runways right and I have. No traffic in may have lights. Of course there are risks with signs and power lines and other things. But if I’m land in the dark or I’m going to land on the feeder road Probably in the land on the feeder road. Every time right. So why would I add more time on the ground. Why would I allow myself more time on the ground. If I was going to take a night flight for me personally. It's harder to see things in the dark. Sometimes I’ll come up here. If I’m doing my night currency I’ll come up here an hour before sunset and preflight the plane makes sure it's ready to go. Make sure all my stuff's where I wanted to be in the cockpit. And then I’ll come inside and wait another hour after sunset before I go do my touch and goes or stop and goes from my night currency. So that's a lot more than just coming up here and get three landings during the day if it is dark to walk around with flashlights. A little bit more difficult You just want your bearings you want to make sure. All the lights are working. I think you just spend a little bit more time pre-flighting an airplane in the dark than you do an airplane during the day. Yeah I agree any other things you think of from a allowing more time or flying higher. That would help our listeners. Doing their night flying. Well I think as a as a new pilot let's say a private pilot with relatively You know Maybe less than a hundred hours less than two hundred hours You know to get your night Currency maybe another option would become out and take off. Just right at Dusk and let your eyes adjust to it rather than just jumping into full darkness. Take off a little bit of light little bit less light little bit less light and the next thing you know it is full darkness and You know Just let your body get into it that way. I mean if You know if I’m learn to run a marathon. I don't go out and run twenty-six miles today. Maybe I run. You know a mile a day two miles tomorrow three miles the next day you build up to it and just so just let your eyes adjust to the darkness as well so another thing that is important is lights If you have a personal preference whether it be a headlamp flashlight your iPhone etc. I think one thing you want to do is try to avoid white light before you get right into the darkness right. It's going to take a while for those eyes to adjust as you said there's Most headlamps specify around aviation pilots supply shops. We're going to have a red-light option. That red light helps your eyes. See better after the turn. The red light off But the bad side of that is if you happen to have a checklist that's written in red. See what happens when you sign a red flashlight. On red lettering it disappears The flashlight that I carry has both a white red and green option. Green on red makes a checklist. Look really good. That's printed in red so things that think about. Have you know. take your lights. Whatever those lights may be headlamp light iPhone etc. and. Read your checklist with them. In the dark. Make sure you can see all the words And the and in any of this V speeds or anything you have on those documents to help you It could make a big difference and then make sure batteries man. How many people that fly very rarely do you think reached down. The pickup that flashlight pushed the needed button. To illuminate light and light not come on Wally. Yeah test check. Your devices seem like common sense but more often than not. You might be surprised by how many times they don't work so I carry actually a big flashlight. That's really for me to preflight the exterior of the aircraft and the interior. If I need to Oh and if. I'm remote and didn't get a chance to preflight it somewhere. I have a small one. That's really in the cockpit normally in the pouch to my left That has the white green red option. That I can use to find something or use it. Probably if I if I’m trying to resolve the problem quickly and then I have a headlamp that I use really mostly during taxi operations that I am trying to get through the you know taxing from alpha to bravo to get to my run up area to do my run up and read a checklist and then I take the headlamp off. Once I get into flight any lighting tips or tricks. the you have their Wally. No you know the headlamp is something that I probably a little bit less familiar with well and not familiar with but haven't used very much. And I and I’ll but it's an it's a great tool I. I play in a band. Okay and we do a lot of Gigs at night. And what One of the guys in our band does is when we're breaking down usually after the gig. Sometimes they're outdoor venues and he's got a headlamp. And I look over at him and I go out and he can see all the cables that he's unplugging and I can't guess what I have now with my that I keep with my drumsticks says I keep a headlamp for breaking down after a gig. I mean it's such a great thing you put the headlamp on and guess what you everywhere you look. It has light and you have two hands. You have two hands It's unlike you know holding a flashlight. You only have one hand or you know if the flashlight is small enough. You've got it in your mouth or whatever but Yeah the headlamp is an excellent thing and like you said everywhere you look a light goes you look in the fuel tank and bond. Guess what you got. Light they aren’t sponsors. But we'll give them a plug that happens to be. The Kingwood Jazz Venture are. I and the ban has recently played a gig at the flight school here and They did a fantastic job so few local goes try and catch them in the local area. They did really good for us. KingwoodJazzVenture.com. So we talked about lights. We talked about flying higher. What's the downside. Potentially maybe a flying higher that we have at nighttime as well. Yeah well the obviously the higher we fly the more susceptibility to a lack of oxygen. We are you know. Eyeballs need oxygen. Right. I think that's in the airplane. Flying handbook and the Pilot’s Handbook of Aeronautical knowledge. You're eyes consume a lot of oxygen. Yeah and it's more. It's more prevalent at night. I if I’m not mistaken. I could be wrong and I don't I remember back in my Private pilot ground school days. We had the guy that taught it for me was an old-world war. two pilot. I want to say he said that in the military above ten thousand during the day The pilots are required to wear oxygen. And at night it's above five thousand in. This is the military in this. These may or may not have changed so there is a different so You need to be aware of that. so You know it. It's that fine line. I mean are is there an advantage to flying higher. Yes is there a disadvantage to flying higher. Yes so you've got to balance that so a little bit like weight and balance. We talked about earlier. podcast their advantages to a forward CG versus aft CG. Gee there's advantages to both. I should say yeah and we in the pilots supply here.
We saw a little can of. I just oxygen. It's called boost it's got a little mouthpiece on it you put it over. It's really kind of a cup. Put it over your nose and mouth and take a little breath. You're getting a direct shot of oxygen out of a can I think it's got like two hundred squirts in the little can. Can the company that started that was not thinking about aviation but thinking general purpose when do people need oxygen and just went snow skiing during this off season or this this fall and winter and those are everywhere in the mountains because they are literally helping people breathe better in the mountains right so Pretty cool thing. Look for can of boost in. You can have that oxygen. They'll give your eyes a little bit more Gusto to see at night. And maybe prevent you from seeing or not seeing what you want to see and the other thing is that you can do is you can get a Pulse ox may mispronounces but a little thing to put on your finger. That checks your oxygen saturation. And I know with would Are the Covid being such a big thing. I'm no we've I have several of these that we keep in our airplane We have a turbocharged airplane. So we fly up. At higher altitudes we do have oxygen in the airplane but We're very aware of oxygen saturation. And we've loaned these to a couple people who've had covid and they kind of track their oxygen saturation using that. But that's another option. You can get those for you. Know fairly economically thirty forty dollars or so. Probably not a bad investment yeah I think in general. Were just sitting there talking saying like you should just be aware of how your body's going to react if you don't fly at night regularly or stay current don't just jump in a plane and climbed to nine thousand feet and don't think about the consequences of what's going to happen to your body Reread the PHAK or The airplane fly handbook. And get a little knowledge about what you might be susceptible to during night flying right. I think about I. We've talked about this a few times. I’m a visibility junkie when it comes flying during the day because I think we think about cloud deck so much more frequently but visibility such a bigger problem for pilots. Young pilots student pilots were flying trying to do their cross country. So I beat visibility into the people around here a lot and at nighttime it's ten times worse. I mean if you if you think about flying in Houston at night. It's really not very different than day. Because there's so many lights are so much that gives you visual reference to the ground. It's very VFR like right but if you turn a little bit north near between Houston and Dallas. It's black right lack for a long long way. And you add a little bit of mist a little bit of haze or a little bit of Saharan dust or a little bit of anything that that creeps into your visibility range. You can get disoriented. Really quick even up to like IFR flying for sure and if you're not an IFR Pilot you have to really be ready for what's about to happen physiologically to your body right and be ready for it. So I think any precipitation any rain. That's going to be in the area or any anything that's going to cause visibility problem. I think we just went through our second. Round of Saharan dust in in the Houston area. and it's it was a deck right at four or five thousand feet and below that you were just flying in sand dust and it was very different than yeah and a clear day for sure. Yeah and we see that down in Galveston You know a lot of lot of the instructors will take students down to Galveston to do some night flying down there. I think is a great thing because south of Galveston there's nothing but the gulf of Mexico and there's no reference to anything it actually might be worse than no reference because there are some oil rigs out there and based on their position they create an angled horizon. Yes and it could make you feel like you're spinning. You're turning when you are not turning. Yeah I always. I've always said that. I think one of You know one thing that we talk about a lot on Well private instrument and commercial check rides is A loss of a vacuum pump. And what instruments that. We're going to lose. And I think I think if most people know that the vacuum pump is out and that attitude indicator is bad. I think they do a pretty good job. I think. the tough part is recognizing it recognizing that we've had a vacuum pump failure and that artificial horizon we don't it doesn't just pop up and say This isn't working. It's slowly goes away. I always thought that the worst-case scenario would be a VFR night where you're.
VFR are so you're thinking. Hey I can see everything and You're kind of following your instruments and you slowly put. The airplane in a bank can slowly putting the airplane in a bank. And then I could be very bad. Yes so it was a gradual. If it was a gradual failure it would be very hard and a great way to practice at in a simulator Especially one with motion and you let the instructor turn vacuum pump or to let it gradually go. You will turn that plane sideways for sure right before you recognize it and then I think for me. The key thing is to cover it up and if I get to cover it up. I'm a pretty good pilot. But if I can visually still see it. I think my mind is playing tricks on me. Because I a scan it so often when I'm flying. Yeah I mean and it is strategically located right. That's the main instrument you look at. You got to headlight on. They would be shining on that for sure. So think about visibility. Think about precipitation thing about anything that might be limiting your visibility and know that you will get disoriented if you're not careful Airport lighting depends on where you fly out of. But I’m hoping that you have airport lights. You need understand those airport lights. How they're controlled. What does it look like when they're on low medium and high. I always think. I want them on high but when I turn them on high. I'm like golly that's really bright. And then low looks really good to me after all. Make sure before you left your landing light and any other taxi lights or things that you're depending on to be working are working and working well so that you can see when you're landing and where you're landing a big difference in your in your final destination. I can assure you we just recently locally went through a problem where one of the airports locally has a NOTAM that almost seems hidden and the airport lights are out. And I think if you experience that where you get to the destination you'll start really understanding why you have thirty minutes of extra fuel during the day and forty-five extra minutes of fuel at night and what all. That's going to do to make you safer better pilot so pay close attention to that. Yeah I am familiar with that airport. I'm familiar with that. NOTAM them and quite to tell on myself. I had to look up. What that the codes for that NOTAM. I'm now why just can't say runway lights out of service. I don't know Fifty years ago. They didn't have enough spots but. hopefully they'll get that changed one. Yeah and You know I. I don't have an answer but there. There's a code. And I had to look it up only cow. That's runway. Lights runway lights are INOP. speaking fuel. How important is fuel man. I know we've had this conversation a lot while you put it in the one two. Three four and five spot. On items of importance. I think at night My personal minimum landing an hour of excess fuel. I want to have an hour of fuel on land. I think anything could cause a problem too where you might have to hold Or divert or fly further and the last thing you want to do. Be worrying about fuel yeah. Unfortunately I’ve listened to way too many videos and audio tracks of people that were flying who you could tell were stressed with fuel problems and didn't come right out and say they were having a fuel problem and ultimately got hurt. I think If you're ever in that circumstance during the day or night you need the ATC guy said it declare. You have a big problem and asks for help. Don't hesitate. Don't delay and boy at night. There's no way. I would play around with that I would. I would not try to be cool. I would not try to be stoic. I think I would probably start crying until them. I need to get on the ground. I have a fuel problem right. It's just one you can't mess with. It's another one of those non-negotiables for sure. Yeah one of the best. Find tips. That I can give and it seems like it happens a lot around the flight school something less. Come up and someone wants to go. Fly their girlfriend somewhere. They have a trip. They're going to be flying at night. They haven't been staying current they come up. They want to get checked out. They want to get current at night again so they can rent a plane the next day and take a girlfriend or a family member on a trip. How good are you thinking. They're going to be flying at night Wally, they haven't flown at night in two years. Probably not very good not very good. Yeah and I don't like it when they fly like that because it's not good for my aircraft. It's not good for them. It's not safe for their passengers. So the best tip we can give you stay current. It does cost a little bit of money. It does take a little bit of time and planning but the best thing you can do for yourself and your aviation career is to stay current when I say current. I don't mean ninety-one days or eighty-nine days. Not right on the bubble right like fly fairly regularly at night and be a be a good nighttime pilot for those of you. The wannabe airline pilots. You have to fly a hundred hours The regulations sixty-one one fifty-nine sixty-one point one fifty-nine says to be eligible for an ATP. You need a hundred hours of nighttime flying that means if you are a fifteen hundred hour airline pilot or ATP qualified to pilot. That's a lot of time right. So what's the math on that. Well how many night hours should I have around five hundred about a third thirty-three. Yeah and so. If I get to five hundred hours. CFI and I have ten was should I be doing. I think he should be asking your students to fly at night. It's right out there out there at night and time. Timeshare time build. Do some cross country's at night with your friends split rates. Whatever you want to do to get that nighttime in the logbook do it early and often so that you're not scrambling I have seen too many. CFI is ready to go. The airlines who had this big requirement of one hundred hours that you can't just go out on one nine hundred hours of flight time. Fifteen hundred hours and seventeen hours a night time and now they're going out and their writing an airplane for eighty-three hours. It's not quite eighty-three hours. Because there is some relief in the regulation about reducing that number based on takeoffs and landings. But we won't get into that but if you if you really want to get into you can look in either way. You're going to have to have at least seventy-five so a lot of time right. If you want to go rent a plane on your own dime do it. But the end of the day the best way to do it is with your students. If you're CFI time build with your friends can make sure you're logging all that nighttime and Getting credit for it. Because it's going to be very expensive if you have to do it at the tail end of all. The flight time he did right. Proper planning will not create a bigger emergency for you or your flight school. Anything else too. Close with Wally as we talk about night flying. No I do want to Just tease an upcoming episode. We've mentioned this before but We're real excited to an announced that in a in the next coming weeks. I'm not sure the exact day we're going to have the Just retired chairman of the national transportation. Safety board join us Robert Sumalt. He's going to talk to us about his fifteen years as NTSB board member and as chairman so that should be very interesting. Show well plugged show to then We have the local soaring clubs in the greater Houston area are going to be on the show as well and tell all of us. Power plant pilots how to fly without a power plant and things we can and should be doing to be better pilots by going maybe getting our glider rating. I'm looking forward to having that Group on the show as well and they're going to give me discovery flight. So I get to go up and land and have any power. I'm not sure I feel about that. But they do it all the time. So it's got to be safe right. Yeah actually. My father was a glider pilot in world war two. He was part of the Normandy. Invasion flying a CG4A glider on June sixth. Wow yeah interesting stuff all right with that as always thanks for listening to the show and stay behind the prop
Thanks for listening. Thanks for checking out the Behind The Prop podcast. be sure to click subscribe and check us out online at BehindTheProp.com behind the prop is recorded in Houston, Texas. Show creator and host is Bobby Doss. Co-host is Wally Mulhearn. This show is for entertainment purposes Only. and not meantto replace actual flight instruction. Thanks for listening and remember: fly safe!