Page 20 - June 2015 Volume 19 Number 6

18 • TWIN & TURBINE JUNE 2015
From The Flight Deck by Kevin R. Dingman
Hello Darkness
(My old friend)
“I’ve owned 41 airplanes. A few of them would talk with me.
There’s a spirit in anything, I think, into which we weave our soul. Not many pilots talk about it, but they think about it
in the quiet dark of a night flight.”
hour before sunrise, and–...The required takeoffs and landings were performed in an aircraft of the same category, class, and type (if a type rating is required). The Fed’s are a bit more clinical than Bach.
If you haven’t flown for a while, it’s common to be anxious. And, just as we feel behind the airplane after an absence, so it is when we fly at night. Two reasons stand out; we fly less often at night, and it takes more effort to gather and process information from our main sense, vision. As we get older, driving after dark requires glasses and slower speeds. And, for many of us, the issues we face while driving at night also apply to night flying: fatigue, visual acuity and depth perception.
Additionally, reading charts, finding switches and avoiding weather are factors that change when we fly at night. There are advantages to the night, however; it’s generally cooler, the ride is often better, there’s less traffic so direct routing is likely, and, if the weather is good, you can see towns and airports from far away.
Unknown Unknowns
The first time I ever rode in an airplane was at night and it was great. During training for my private, I wasn’t any more anxious at night than the day, and felt no more behind the plane than in daytime. Then, as a teenage private pilot, most of my flying was single-engine at night. It didn’t seem more risky because I was bullet-proof, and the back side of my circadian clock was the same as the front side; when you’re a teen, sleep is optional. All- night cross-countries were flown in every direction: Michigan to New York, Florida, Montana, Oklahoma and Colorado. I didn’t know what I didn’t know. Fortunately, I outgrew that no-risk, bullet-proof feeling and by the time I entered the Air Force, I had enough experience to know better.
When the USAF Pilot Training syllabus called for night flying,
You may tell people that you don’t fly much at night because you favor the panoramic view of
a sun-swept vista, that you can see other airplanes and weather more easily during the daytime, or you might simply mumble something about the troublesome night- landing regulation. Most of us have had contemplative moments while flying; many in the quiet dark. But it’s no secret why the night column in your logbook lists a much smaller total than the day column: it’s because The Boogie Man comes out at night and nothing good happens after midnight...... or does it?
We Don’t Need Convincing
Most of us prefer to fly in the sunshine because we agree with these maxims. Certainly the sun- swept vista one, and we recognize the after-midnight adage as a hard- learned matter of record. And the Boogie Man is just another name for our fight-or-flee DNA that lets us imagine bumps in the night and “benefit” from our adrenal glands. In addition to the emotional justifications for flying when it’s
-Richard D. Bach (Pilot, author, philosopher)
daylight, there is conclusive evidence that our bodies must be exposed to natural light at regular intervals to function properly. And the dangers of operating an aircraft on the backside of the clock – during the “sleep side” of our circadian rhythm – are undeniable. Okay, so we don’t need convincing to avoid the dark. But, to deny ourselves the night is an unnecessary restriction on the utility of our airplane. The airplane doesn’t care that it’s dark; it’s all about us, our senses and our adrenal glands. Night flying is simply another category of flying, like instrument, and should be treated as such. This includes training, proficiency and recent experience.
TheFAR
No person may act as pilot in command of an aircraft carrying passengers during the period beginning 1 hour after sunset and ending 1 hour before sunrise, unless within the preceding 90 days that person has made at least three takeoffs and three landings to a full stop during the period beginning
1 hour after sunset and ending 1