Aircraft: C172
Registration: C-GMME
Dual Time: 1.3 Total: 56.3
PIC Time: 0.0 Total: 26.5
Total Time: 82.8
Today I embark on a new adventure in my flying, I am beginning the training for my Night Rating. In Canada although I am a Private Pilot I am not allowed to fly at night as opposed to the American version of the PPL that does allow it. I find this is a much safer mentality as it can actually be dangerous to fly at night unprepared! OTOH I CAN fly a high performance retractable gear aircraft without any special rating so pfft. It’s all the same thing, the PPL is simply a license to learn and today would be no exception to the rule.
I arrived at the airport on a crystal clear night that was easily -22 with about -33 windchill. The aircraft we had booked was fresh out of maintenance and had a few snags like a missing fire extinguisher. The real snag however was the total lack of a battery! It had been removed to be charged. Louis and I decided to do our briefing as we waited for the battery to come up to spec. The briefing mostly consisted of special night flying needs. I had already taken the night lesson of the commercial ground school and so had understood most of this prior and therefore the briefing went smoothly. I went out to preflight GQQV and realized it was not ready. As I was about to can the flight, a pilot arrived in a freshly warmed up GMME. We swapped and soon were preflighting this nice C172 M model.
Rica was her amazing self not sitting in the lounge with the other pilot’s wives but instead hopping up on a wing strut to verify the tanks were full and generally helping me all around in prepping the uber dark cabin. I got to use my new “head lamp” which is a totally geeky thing to wear unless you’re a private pilot, then it’s the ultimate in coolness. My light has a dual red led, single white led and a krypton bulb. Performing a pre flight at night is the same as during the day but take a bit longer and has a couple of additional steps (Checking the nav lights, taxi light and landing light). During my walk around I bumped my light against the underwing and it caused the krypton bulb to burn out! Arrgh! At least it is still effective for in cockpit use.
The GMME model is most unfamiliar to me so it took a bit longer for me to do the start and run up. I noticed some of the placards were made with RED INK! Do you know what red ink looks like under red light? nothing. It looks like a blank label, so I got to see how having a secondary light is handy. Louis was awesome in handling checklist and allowing me to make things move along quicker on this really cold night. Soon we were back-taxiing runway 09 for runway 27. My first taxi at night was interesting but simple if you can follow a yellow line. As I turned the aircraft around to line up for the takeoff the runway lights ahead of me and the blackness made it all so real. I expected Louis to fly the take off but he wanted none of that. I queried “short field”? He concurred. I firewalled the throttle and soon we were airborne in the dark night. It was surreal!
As I passed thru 700′ AGL Louis called “I have control” and passed me the foggles. Tonight would be mainly an IFR practice and therefore the “night” part was really insignificant other then to make it feel real. I donned the goggles and soon was flying up the river to the North flying on instruments alone. We climbed up to 2500′ and Louis commanded turns from 330 to 030, climbs and descents. I flew these quite well and soon he was reaching for the instrument covers. Louis asked me what would happen if we experienced a vaccuum failure. I tapped the AI and DG and stated these would be lost. He then covered them in a simulated failure mode. I modified my scan and kept flying as directed. When Louis asked me to turn from 030 to 330 I looked up at the compass and began my turn, something was wrong! The compass was spinning the wrong way. I had always READ about compass errors but this was the first time I actually spent the time to witness it. I realized the compass would be useless for these and instead switched to timed turns. Using the TC and turning always at standard rate it was a breeze to turn any which way Louis commanded. More climbs and descents were called for and accomplished. I saw the odd glimpse of ground lighting and really wanted to look outside! I felt I was missing a lot but Louis assured me I would have plenty of time to take in those sights later.
Now we were heading back to the south and Louis asked for control of the aircraft, I sensed we would be doing unusual attitudes, partial panel! Louis is a MASTER at setting up the unusual attitude. In fact it’s the first time I was ever “tricked” during a setup and normally you can sense what the aircraft is doing based on sound and feel. Louis would pitch up but add power or vice versa and so my assumptions were all wrong. Something else he did was instead of asking me to close my eyes, he had me read the checklist aloud. ”you have control” I look up to see airspeed rising fast so power back, wings level then pull out. Well I think I pulled first but quickly caught the error. Next one, speed dropping, almost at stall, power forward, stick forward! We did 5 of these, all different and during one he even snuck out some flaps. Great job by Louis and great job by me.
I then was vectored over to CYND for my first night landing. It would be a touch and go on 27 with a 10 KT wind from the North. Louis vectored me all the way to a long final and as we passed thru 700′ AGL I was asked to remove the goggles and land. It was a lot all at once. I could tell by the crab angle this was a serious crosswind and although the runway is long it was dark and somewhat foreboding. I was beginning to sweat a little and feel overwhelmed. I cranked in the slip necessary and flew down the runway, the PAPI indicated I was high but I knew I had time. I left the flaps at 20 to give me compensation for the x-wind. I flew closer to the runway when things seemed to get squirrely. I was weaving to the North side of the runway and the lights were passing by I did not feel in command of the situation and was just about to add full power for a go around when I was surprised by the sweet rrrchh of the main wheels touching down. It was amazing, I just landed and did it pretty well, but my secret was that the plane really landed itself. I still feel a bit of shame over that one. No time to dwell I added full power and soon we were climbing away from the runway, with 20 flaps and carb heat on. ARRGH!! I pushed the carb heat in and milked off the flaps, Louis was really cool and didn’t chastise me knowing I was already taking care of it internally.
We climbed away from Gatineau up to 1700′ and soon we were crossing overhead Rockliffe to descend and join from the upwind side. Here the pressure was on, I knew that the runway at night is approximately half the length it is during the day and we were landing on 27 which is the one ending at a fence and not with another 1000′ of dark pavement! No need to worry, I flew as I knew but made a huge mistake. You see I ALWAYS pull the power abeam the touchdown spot and fly a power off glide approach. Tonight for some reason, the darkness made me keep the power up and soon we were looking down at a really really high approach. I could see clearly we wouldn’t make it but since Rica was in the back decided to slip it hard and put the plane in as big of a slip as I ever have watching for it to descend. I made two errors, one was to allow the nose down too far which increased my speed and the second was not putting in enough rudder. All this to say, we didn’t’ make the landing and about 100′ agl I overshot for trial #2.
This time around I extended my downwind and still ended up high! Why does the engine sound give me comfort at night? I managed to slip this time better and as we neared the runway tried to visualize what I should see. It happened too quickly for me to really take in snot but I got it down somewhat sideways loading the front wheel but not damaging anything. Sheesh! thanks for the snow..
Louis helped me shut down and we tied the aircraft in the now bitter cold. I felt accomplished even though I definitely need circuit practice. Louis commented that he loved my unusual attitude recoveries and didn’t mention the landings at all so I guess I might be being too hard on myself.
Thanks for an amazing and challenging flight, I can’t wait for the next one!