First night flight in ages
Today Charles and I went up for a night IFR training flight of 1.4 hours.
I did the pre-flight as dusk was rolling in so I needed to use a flashlight for large portions of it. This was the first time I have flown at night in about 8 years (I didn't fly for about 7 years) so I had to remind myself the give the lights a thorough check - simply turned on the master switch and brought all the exterior lights up - all good to go!
Taxiing out to runway 31 we found some deer grazing by the taxiway (just after Charles mentioned that they'd probably be around). Worried that they might run out in front of us we stopped, held the brakes, and ran the engine RPMs up a bit. That got them moving quite well. :) They darted off and we continued on.
After a quick run thru of when to turn which lights on/off and how to turn on the pilot-controlled runway lights we were rolling down runway 31 looking for 60 kts. We had determined that since there was no good overhead red light to use for the approach plates, I would use the white overhead map light. Luckily it did not blind Charles too badly as he looked for traffic (and the aurora-borealis, which is supposed to make a very southern appearance in our neck of the woods tonight). So, after reaching a few hundred feet Charles flew the plane while I put on the foggles and turned on the overhead lamp.
Calling up Norfolk Approach, we requested a full stop ILS 7 into Newport News. We were vectored to a few miles outside of the final approach fix (where we intercept the glide slope) and told: "5199A you are 3 miles south of JETIT, cleared ILS 7 Newport News. Fly heading 090. Maintain 2000 until established. Contact tower 118.7".
I read back the clearance and soon enough it was time to turn inbound to 067 degrees to stay on the localizer. I slowed us down to 90 kts in preparation to hit the glide slope. After keeping the needles pretty centered going down the ILS for a bit (I had the benefit of a calm night) Charles told me to take my foggles off at the middle marker. At about 80 feet above the decision height (of 240') the marker started sounding in our ears and I took off the foggles. We made our landing (I managed to judge runway height OK) and after the full stop we were off again on runway 7. The tower cleared us to change frequencies and Charles told me to proceed direct to HCM VOR for the FYJ VOR-A approach.
After briefing the approach Charles had me descend to 2000 feet and "cleared" me for the approach. I did a direct entry into the hold and we went down to 1400' we coming inbound back toward the HCM VOR (the final approach fix). Crossing the VOR, I started the timer, maintained the 335 radial outbound, and started my descent to the circling minimum of 520'. I reduced power during the descend in an effort to keep 90kts indicated on the airspeed indicator. As we got close to the field, Charles had me take off the foggles. I thought I saw the rotating beacon, but after 5 clicks of the mic I was not seeing any runway. After Charles let me know I was clicking too fast, I slowed it down and the runway "materialized" ahead of me. Seeing that we were getting close, I started a turn to the right to set up a circle-to-land for runway 27 (winds reported calm). The circle-to-land went fairly well, though I did land a bit long. We back-taxied and took off on 27.
Charles told me to head back to HCM and do the GPS-B into JGG. I fumbled with the GPS a bit - the problem ended up being that although I had selected the procedure I wanted, the GPS was still showing my last waypoint as the active - I had to tell it I wanted to go direct to the HCM initial approach fix.
I managed to blow right by the VOR b/c of a lapse in situational awareness, but was able to recover and get back on the inbound course to JGG. My descent could have been a little more aggressive, we basically reach the minimum altitude when right on top of the field. A quick circle-to-land back on runway 31 and we were done.
I had a little trouble judging runway height at FYJ, and slightly less trouble doing the same at JGG. But it wasn't too bad being my first night flight in a while.
Didn't get to see much scenery at all since I was under the foggles, but at least I am night current again! :)
Things to improve:
I did the pre-flight as dusk was rolling in so I needed to use a flashlight for large portions of it. This was the first time I have flown at night in about 8 years (I didn't fly for about 7 years) so I had to remind myself the give the lights a thorough check - simply turned on the master switch and brought all the exterior lights up - all good to go!
Taxiing out to runway 31 we found some deer grazing by the taxiway (just after Charles mentioned that they'd probably be around). Worried that they might run out in front of us we stopped, held the brakes, and ran the engine RPMs up a bit. That got them moving quite well. :) They darted off and we continued on.
After a quick run thru of when to turn which lights on/off and how to turn on the pilot-controlled runway lights we were rolling down runway 31 looking for 60 kts. We had determined that since there was no good overhead red light to use for the approach plates, I would use the white overhead map light. Luckily it did not blind Charles too badly as he looked for traffic (and the aurora-borealis, which is supposed to make a very southern appearance in our neck of the woods tonight). So, after reaching a few hundred feet Charles flew the plane while I put on the foggles and turned on the overhead lamp.
Calling up Norfolk Approach, we requested a full stop ILS 7 into Newport News. We were vectored to a few miles outside of the final approach fix (where we intercept the glide slope) and told: "5199A you are 3 miles south of JETIT, cleared ILS 7 Newport News. Fly heading 090. Maintain 2000 until established. Contact tower 118.7".
I read back the clearance and soon enough it was time to turn inbound to 067 degrees to stay on the localizer. I slowed us down to 90 kts in preparation to hit the glide slope. After keeping the needles pretty centered going down the ILS for a bit (I had the benefit of a calm night) Charles told me to take my foggles off at the middle marker. At about 80 feet above the decision height (of 240') the marker started sounding in our ears and I took off the foggles. We made our landing (I managed to judge runway height OK) and after the full stop we were off again on runway 7. The tower cleared us to change frequencies and Charles told me to proceed direct to HCM VOR for the FYJ VOR-A approach.
After briefing the approach Charles had me descend to 2000 feet and "cleared" me for the approach. I did a direct entry into the hold and we went down to 1400' we coming inbound back toward the HCM VOR (the final approach fix). Crossing the VOR, I started the timer, maintained the 335 radial outbound, and started my descent to the circling minimum of 520'. I reduced power during the descend in an effort to keep 90kts indicated on the airspeed indicator. As we got close to the field, Charles had me take off the foggles. I thought I saw the rotating beacon, but after 5 clicks of the mic I was not seeing any runway. After Charles let me know I was clicking too fast, I slowed it down and the runway "materialized" ahead of me. Seeing that we were getting close, I started a turn to the right to set up a circle-to-land for runway 27 (winds reported calm). The circle-to-land went fairly well, though I did land a bit long. We back-taxied and took off on 27.
Charles told me to head back to HCM and do the GPS-B into JGG. I fumbled with the GPS a bit - the problem ended up being that although I had selected the procedure I wanted, the GPS was still showing my last waypoint as the active - I had to tell it I wanted to go direct to the HCM initial approach fix.
I managed to blow right by the VOR b/c of a lapse in situational awareness, but was able to recover and get back on the inbound course to JGG. My descent could have been a little more aggressive, we basically reach the minimum altitude when right on top of the field. A quick circle-to-land back on runway 31 and we were done.
I had a little trouble judging runway height at FYJ, and slightly less trouble doing the same at JGG. But it wasn't too bad being my first night flight in a while.
Didn't get to see much scenery at all since I was under the foggles, but at least I am night current again! :)
Things to improve:
- Remembering to do the pre-landing checklist
- need to get the WX earlier (and my Jepp chart did not have the FYJ AWOS freq on it for some reason)
- take it easy on the click-speed for the runway lights
- never let the airplane get out in front of me as it did on the last approach
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