Are runway lights mandatory at night?

[nosehair]

It is amazing, however, what you can see if you truly allow your night vision to adapt...I flew a couple of nights with the local DNR pilot a few...er, well, more than a few...years ago looking for poachers. We turned all of the interior lights WAAAAY down in the airplane, and after a few hours it was almost like flying in daylight.

This is the point of training. You can see the runway enviornment pretty good - good enough to effect a safe landing. And good for the soul in terms of night flying comfort.

And it is not illegal, in terms of training. Even under 141. The reg says there have to be permanant lights, but it does not say they have to be on for all landings. Night flying emergencies would include some night landings without landing lights, and could include landing without r/w lights, too. As long as the training operation is not blatently unsafe, such as doing them on a dark moonless windy night, no one will hit you with a careless and reckless. It's not careless or reckless if there is moonlight and proper care and time is taken to adjust to the dark.

It used to be standard training in the old army.

 

[MauleSkinner]

This is the point of training. You can see the runway enviornment pretty good - good enough to effect a safe landing. And good for the soul in terms of night flying comfort.

Unfortunately, most training only goes to the 30 minutes mentioned in most FAA literature...night vision keeps improving for quite a while longer if you let it.

Fly safe!

David

 

[ksu_aviator]

When I was instructing I would take my students out for a bunch of landings in one flight. After 4 or 5 touch and go's the airport lights would automatically turn off. The student would usually try to turn them back on, which I wanted to see. However, I wouldn't let them. I would pop a scenario on them that wasn't so unlikely. The where doing a night flight and had a total power failure. Land the airplane.

Now, I only did this at an airport I was very familiar with and we only did one landing to show that it could be done. It's like simulating an engine out over a grass runway to show you can land in a field. If you've never done it, how do you know you can? Trying it the first time in a controlled environment is much better than on a hazey night at an unfamiliar airport with a real electrical failure.

 

[Say Again Over]

Suddenly I am getting this mental picture of a DC-3 landing on a grass strip at night marked by a bunch of small pot fires...

Hmm, I was thinking BE-18 or CE-402. :beer:

 

[atpcliff]

Hi!

I heard about a guy who's Captain was trying to land a DC-3 with flarepots, and it wasn't going so well.

He finally "landed", and went into a ditch.

Both guys stayed there all night, to stay away from the authorities, and the next night a company aircraft flew in there and got them out.

The owner of the company came down about 6 months later at night, pulled the DC-3 out of the ditch, cut the barbed wire out of the landing gear, and flew it back safe and sound.

That's one way to avoid hassles with the aviation and local authorities!!!

cliff
YIP