Night Landing Tips

[@Aleksandar6ix]

Starting my night rating tomorrow evening! In Canada, night flying is a separate rating but is also included as part of the CPL, and not PPL.

[@kylejenkin6567]

Hows the training going, I start mine on Saturday out of CYKZ, enjoy!

[@Copilotdave]

Starting mine in a few days, looking forward to it!

[@limitedkanji]

damn look at all of us canadian pilots, im 4 flights into my night rating rn lol, im outta YKF

[@jaybhojwani8308]

CYXX here, a couple night flights in

[@3stripeboy]

Awesome content. I’m about to go on my night flight XC from Oahu to lanai, thanks for the tips.

[@HerbertTowers]

Try this thought guys. Flare as the runway side lights seem to approach your shoulders. Be prepared for a feeling that the aircraft is sinking into the tarmac. Remember to dim the instrument panel lights and screens. N.B. The runway lights layout maybe different to the actual surface dimensions and, in particular, it's easy to be fooled by an exaggerated sense of runway profile. During climbout/go-around be sure to scan between that artificial horizon and what you (think) see. The whole night flying world is full of potential visual illusion risks - add in those middle ear issues during approach speed/attitude problems of the runway environment. Take care guys. That nice quiet benign approach can switch into CFIT very easily.

[@user-jh5fm7ci6o]

Starting my night landings. I land great during the day. With no depth perception, going to be interesting. I will follow your tips.

[@ron4969]

Just did training on night landings last night and this video is great , had problems on firm landings,runway was coming up to fast on flair, every time , not bad landings, but definitely not greasers

[@NorthStarAero]

It's challenging for sure!

[@jonathanabarca9515]

Great Video Mark! I'll be sure to use these tips when I fly at night.

[@SangahNoona]

Great video! I'm going my night solo tonight for my commercial. The angle of view (camera) is really helpful! Thank you very much for sharing!

[@greghanaway]

We have a small refinery in our town and that cauldron is a burn off pot. The facility needs to burn off product from time to time, be it from contamination or some other reason, and they pump the waste into that pot to burn it. I hope you held your breath as you flew over.

[@NorthStarAero]

Yeah we didnt fly through the smoke. I figured I would grow a third arm or something if we did.

[@ClarkyAv]

Great advice mate!

[@NorthStarAero]

Thanks!

[@cutekoala9095]

that nose wheel is stressing me out

[@captaineds8024]

yep me too

[@NorthStarAero]

Things you don't realize from inside the cockpit lol.

[@Cotz95]

Glad it’s not just me 😂

[@ianriley9031]

As best I can tell from Google that's the Total Petrochemicals & Refinery in Port Arthur, TX. If you look on the satellite imagery you can see what appears to be a large bin with pipes and small fires coming out of spouts on the pipes. Perhaps this is an emergency system of some sort that allows the plant to flare off in a controlled manner? Maybe they were testing it that night as I can't find anything in the news about a plant fire.

[@NorthStarAero]

Thanks, That was kind of what I figured but it was hard to tell. Nice detective work!

[@jakew9887]

Great video. thanks

[@paulog405]

Great video. Thanks for you hints. Do you have any ideas about finding the airport's rotating beacon at night. I mean, I always fly at night to an airport I have already been to, because I am having trouble finding the airport by just locating the rotating beacon. Well, at the last minute I use foreflight or GPS, so I don't miss it, but I look and I know the airport is out there, but I don't see the rotating beacon. I don't know if I am not focusing enough, or if the lights around confuses me, or if the beacon tower is too low. It would be nice if I could click the mike and the tower lighted up as a Christmas tree. I just wanted to locate the beacon easier in case I lost GPS, Foreflight, etc. Electrical emergency. I appreciate ti.

[@HerbertTowers]

Never rely on a single flashing light.

[@RykeEdwards]

Nice video....thank you for sharing

[@NorthStarAero]

My Pleasure

[@Ronbob59]

Exactly what airport is this? I lived in Houston for 33 years! Thanks for the tips.

[@Copilotdave]

Ron Pearson hooks airport

[@cassandrastutz2874]

@@Copilotdave I’m getting night current at Hooks tonight! Glad this is the video I clicked lol

[@MikeKobb]

Which airport near Houston was that, out of curiosity? I grew up in the area so it would be fun to know. Thanks for the cool video!

[@NorthStarAero]

+Mike Kobb We were flying out of Hooks.

[@MikeKobb]

Cool, I thought it might be! I've never flown from there, but I've been there to visit a shop at the field.

[@paullsaffold6259]

Is your focus always on the third light? During the day I look further down the runway. Seems I always flare too high, will try adding a little power the next time. Regarding finding airports at night I find it useful to plug an approach in to my GpS to get me to the right runway.

[@NorthStarAero]

Hi Paul, my focus may change slightly but I always have an aiming point. This is critical during night landings. Feel free to give me a call and I can better explain my thought process as I make the landing. I can also help you to understand why you are finding yourself flaring high. Also you may want to check out my landing video in Sedona. In that video I superimposed a target ring on the video so you can get a better understanding of where to look during the different landing phases. Hope that helps.

[@thomasw.richter5212]

Strange enough, my landing by night are better than by daylight.

[@kahuna0147]

How did you mount the camera, on the wheel strut?

[@NorthStarAero]

It was mounted on a custom built mount under the wing.

[@teencessnapilot]

Is this real? It almost looks like FSX or XPlane

[@NorthStarAero]

It's 100% Real. Mounted a camera under the right wing and did the VoiceOver after the fact.

[@JP-xd6fm]

what if you have to land on a dark runway?, I don't know , all airfields have lights?

[@NorthStarAero]

What if your radio has failed and you can't turn on the lights? What if you are landing at a very large airport and they don't want to turn the lights up for you?

[@JP-xd6fm]

@@NorthStarAero I'm European and I really have no idea if all airfields must have lights or only few, I don't know if in USA all airfields must have lights, I mean a big airport for sure, but small airfields for private flights only?, that was actually what I wanted to know

[@markwages1730]

@@JP-xd6fm Sorry about that, I didn't realize you were European. In the US we have right at about 5,000 public use airports and about 70-75% of those have lighting. At uncontrolled fields in the US we use PCL or pilot controlled lighting. The pilot can activate the runway lights by clicking their push to talk button while on the unicom frequency. 3-for low intensity, 5- for medium, and 7- for high intensity. Hope that helps.

[@percivalancheta5358]

What 3rd light are you talking about?

[@NorthStarAero]

The runway edge lights. If you create and begin aiming at an imaginary line between the third runway lights from the touchdown end of the runway, that will put you about a 700'-1000' down the runway. Its just a reference point. The key is to make sure you find something that you are using for a reference point fly to. If you don't do this, its easy to either dive for the runway or come in really flat and not know it, because you have very few of the visual references that you would be used to having during a daytime landing.