Mark W. wrote: > I'm not sure I understand the reluctance for night flights. If you have > the > instrumentation to show that you are "straight and level", and you are in > normal Night VFR and VMC, why wouldn't you be willing to fly at night. > (I'm > still learning, have patience).
Two big reasons come to mind. One is that you can fly into a cloud and not realize it for a few minutes if you're over dark terrain, because you can't see the clouds ahead of you. Sure, you can do a U-turn, if you can handle IMC in a KR, but it's very uncomfortable for most, I would think. The other is the engine out phenomenon. If you haven't heard this one, it's time you had..."if the engine quits during night flight, turn on the landing light to see where you're going to land. If you don't like what you see, turn the light back off", or something to that effect. Basically, you don't have the luxury of finding the best site for an off field landing because the lights don't show diddly until you're too low to go somewhere else. Engine failure is the one that scares me the most. Having said that, I do enjoy night flight, but the pucker factor is higher. Maybe that's why I enjoy it... Mark Langford, Huntsville, AL website: www.N56ML.com email: N56ML at hiwaay.net
