Page 24 - Nov2016TNT Vol 20 No 11

Twin Proficiency:by Thomas P. TurnerIt’s the time of year when you are more likely to be flying in the dark. Objectively, it shouldn’t make much difference, especially if you’re flying IFR— just fly the procedures and keep your eyes on the instruments, and you should be all right. The record shows, however, that the rate of accidents at night is wildly out of proportion to the percentage of flying done in the dark. What can we do to mitigate the added risk?The RecordCountering the argument that “the airplane doesn’t know if it’s light or dark out,” the record clearly shows a greater rate of aircraft accidents at night. The AOPA Air Safety Institute says that while “... only 19.2 percent of daytime accidents resulted in fatalities..., over one- third (34.6 percent) of all night accidents were fatal ... At night, nearly half of the accidents in VMC were fatal ... compared to nearly three-fourths of night IMC accidents.”Bad Is Worse At NightAt night, what might otherwise be inconveniences can become life-threatening emergencies. Early in my flying career this happened to me:I was tasked to fly a Beech Baron from its base in northern Kansas down to Wichita. I’d never flown this particular airplane before; I was picking it up to fly it to the shop for the Baron’s single throw-over controls to be replaced with dual control wheels, so I could provide transition training to the thirty-year-old Baron’s new owner.I hitched a ride up with a friend in a Piper Warrior. After completing a preflight inspection of the Baron and its logbooks, I waved my friend homeward. We’d had stronger-than-expected headwinds on the way up, and it also took a lot of time for the FBO to find the Baron’s keys for me, so my departure was delayed enough to make it dark before I completed the hour-long flight back home.22 • TWIN & TURBINEI fired up the piston twin and took off, VFR, heading southward. About a half-hour out of Wichita, I noticed a thin layer of ground fog developing. ATIS at Wichita’s Mid- Continent (now Eisenhower National) Airport reported IFR conditions, but well above minimums. So, I called Center and picked up an IFR clearance in the air.On vectors to intercept the localizer for the ILS, as it was getting dark, I turned on the instrument panel lights. Nothing happened. It’s hard to check panel lights for operation in daylight, but I later learned a faulty rheostat prevented them from coming on when I needed them. I’d not gone out of my way to shade the instruments and check that the panel lights worked before I took off, even knowing I’d be flying at night. Happily, I had a couple of working flashlights with which to see the instruments during approach set-up and landing.There were a lot of “I should’ve done this” or “I should not have done that” lessons from this experience, lessons I’ve absorbed and integrated since that time. As a result, I’ve come up with some techniques for minimizing the risk for night flight.Night Safety Do’s And Don’tsDo Not:• Fly at night without a thorough weather and NOTAMs briefing. No exceptions. Beware of marginal VFR reports, converging temperature/dewpoint spreads, temperature inversions, and reports of winds blowing off large bodies of water. Each can lead to rapidly deteriorating ceilings or visibilities you can’t detect visually at night before you’re in them.• Make a night flight immediately after airplane maintenance or an annual inspection. A post- maintenance flight should be a day, VMC shakedown.• Fly at night the first time you fly a specific airplane. Until you fly it yourself, you don’t know what works and what doesn’t.NOVEMBER 2016Night Risk Management