Last night, after getting out of work, I decided to go do some night landings to maintain my 90-day currency. It was about half an hour after sunset, or half an hour before legal FAA darkness. If I have a choice, I like to do my pre-flight before it’s pitch-black out, because I figure I’m more likely to miss something with a flashlight.
It was a very nice night out at Newport State — about 58 degrees, and the winds were out of 300 @ 5 knots. I called flight services to check for any NOTAMs or TFRs that may have popped up lately, and there were none. The pre-flight was perfect, although my vacuum system light is still on, and has been since the annual was done in September. I’ll have to bring it back out to New Bedford to have that checked out before I fly IFR. (There doesn’t actually seem to be a problem with the vacuum system — the gyros are working perfectly. I assume it’s the light that’s messed up, maybe a wire crossed someplace.)
I taxied off the ramp onto Taxiway Bravo, listened to the automated weather observation, and did my run-up. It was almost dark, but there was still enough light that my pathetically dim taxi/landing light wasn’t yet a problem. There was no one else operating on the airport or in the pattern. I made the proper radio calls, and then back-taxied to the approach end of Runway 34. I turned around, did my pre-takeoff checklist, and off into the night.
I headed out towards New Bedford Regional Airport (EWB). I like doing my night proficiency flights out there, because the 5,000-foot runways allow me to make full-stop landings, followed by takeoffs, without having to taxi back to the head of the runway. (I’m sure I have enough room to pull it off at Newport, but without nearly as much margin for error.) I called the tower 10 miles out, and let them know I had information Foxtrot, which stated that the winds were calm and the active runway at New Bedford was 32.
The tower told me to report entering a left downwind for Runway 32. As I approached the airport, I heard the tower talking to other planes in the pattern about some radio interference; apparently, when the weather conditions are just right, faraway radio transmissions can interfere with our frequency from various locations in the New Bedford traffic pattern. Sure enough, on final for Runway 32, I heard a loud bunch of static from 500 feet MSL down to about 250. It was dark by then, and I made my first landing, a nice one, came to a full stop, and then powered back up and took off into the pattern again.
I made two more landings, each time making my turn from base to final over downtown New Bedford, and each time hearing the radio interference. My third landing was not as impressive as the previous two — it was really dark now, and because of the dimness of my landing light, I always have some amount of difficulty judging my distance over the runway when I flare. I prefer to err on the side of too high than to smash my nose wheel into the pavement, so I flared and then dropped to the runway a little harder than I would have preferred. I really need to work on using the flattening runway lights as my source of perspective, rather than trying to judge distance to the pavement by staring down into the darkness.
After the third takeoff, I headed southwest back towards Newport. The New Bedford tower controller asked me to do a radio check for him on the emergency frequency, 121.5, and I switched over to do the radio check. In a few minutes, I was back on the Newport traffic frequency, intending to enter the pattern and land on Runway 34 (the winds were about the same as before, 300 @ 4 knots). There was another aircraft, however, preparing to take off from Runway 4, so I switched gears and entered the downwind for Runway 4 instead. The other aircraft, an Arrow, had plenty of time to depart, and I landed on Runway 4, again a little bit bumpier than I’d like. (Certainly not enough to cause any damage to the plane, but enough that, had I had passengers, they wouldn’t have mistaken it for a good landing.)
I taxied back to my tie-down space, annoyed as usual that the bright lights at the fuel farm and the National Guard depot behind the airport blinded me as I taxied towards the ramp. I tied down the aircraft and entered the flight into my logbook:
4 landings, 0.9 ASEL, 0.9 night, 0.9 PIC, 0.9 total time.
Maybe I’ll have a chance today or tomorrow to go up while it’s still light and practice using the edges of the runway for perspective, and then try a few more night landings. I’d like them to be as smooth as my daytime landings.
