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night flight

When I earned my Private license, specific training in night flying was required if the new pilot planned to fly at night. Otherwise, the license was endorsed as “Night Flying Prohibited.“ I wanted the license without restrictions, as well as the flexibility of flying after sunset so I arranged for the necessary training flights. One particular night flight became an experience I have never forgotten.

The plan was to fly from the Cuyahoga County Airport (GCF) in Richmond Heights to Erie, Pennsylvania (ERI) and return. This would involve 100-mile legs each way and satisfy one of the experience requirements.

I met my CFI at 10pm on a very dark night. The visibility looked fine on the ground, but clouds were predicted sporadically along our route. The instructor filed an instrument flight plan, explaining that the situation would present a challenge, and vividly demonstrate to me why I didn’t dare attempt such a flight without an instrument rating.

We completed the preflight and then launched for Erie. Reaching our cruising altitude, I judged the concern about clouds and impaired visibility to be greatly exaggerated. I was about to get a real flying lesson.

night flight

Reaching our cruising altitude, I judged the concern about clouds and impaired visibility to be greatly exaggerated.

Ground lights were plainly visible, as was traffic on I-90 heading straight for Erie. I settled in for an uneventful flight, but suddenly I found myself in complete and  impenetrable darkness. I stiffened on the controls. The CFI quietly asked if I knew what had happened. I replied that we must have flown into a cloud.

He said, “That’s right, watch your instruments. We’ll be out of this in a second. “ He was right. Good visibility returned.

The second time a cloud blocked our path the incident was far less unnerving, but my learning experience was about to become more vivid.

We were monitoring the tower frequency at Erie, and we could hear a disturbing dialogue. A pilot was lost in the dark, in and out of the clouds. His voice sounded on the verge of panic. The controller calmed him, vectoring him out of the clouds and on to a heading for the airport. Soon his anxiety changed to immense relief as he found himself rolling out on short final at his home airport.

Shortly afterward, we followed suit, making a touch and go at Erie before climbing out and turning west for home, but the flight had one more challenge in store.

night flight

We made a touch and go at Erie before climbing out and turning west for home, but the flight had one more challenge in store.

As we neared Cleveland, the scattered clouds grew denser, obstructing our view of the ground. The instructor had me radio Cleveland-Hopkins (CLE) and explain our predicament. Controllers there assigned a transponder code. We were given a heading to CGF and told we would emerge from the clouds in three minutes with the airport directly in front of us.

Right on schedule, the airport appeared. We proceeded to land and secure the aircraft. I saw, or should say heard, ATC save the day twice in as many hours that night.

After a brief discussion I got in my car and headed home as a much wiser pilot than the one who had taken off for Erie several hours earlier.

Tom Matowitz
Latest posts by Tom Matowitz (see all)
20 replies
  1. Tom Matowitz
    Tom Matowitz says:

    A lack of training, experience, and careful preparation provides the shortest path to a bad outcome.
    The flight described above offered several lasting lessons and decades later I’m still around to talk about it. I call that a good outcome.

    Reply
  2. Dale Hill
    Dale Hill says:

    Personally, I prefer to log night time by closing my eyes for a few minutes during the daytime. Doesn’t that count that as night fiying? LOL!

    Reply
  3. mike harper
    mike harper says:

    Reminds of a story by a co-worker. He was having trouble with radio calls. His instructor flew with him, late at night, around the San Francisco Bay Area airports. That was 60 years ago when traffic was light. BTW, he did get the hang of coms with the towers.

    Reply
  4. Kenneth Ott
    Kenneth Ott says:

    Tom, I know your cross country route very well. I have flown EMS helicopters out of a base just north of Pittsburgh and frequently find ourselves in Erie or Cleveland. Your direct route between CGF and ERI gives the VFR pilot alot to think about. Both there and back, half of your scan for the horizon is the dark abyss of Lake Erie at night. At best you might have seen Canadian lights on your way to Erie. Then the weather that forms right on the coast tends to develop quickly and leave a lower ceiling just hanging over Erie. Your ability to maintain a heading and altitude with a very dark night demands the skill of an IFR pilot. This flight marked a moment that your skill to manage the unexpected becomes your experience that that will pay off for a lifetime.

    Reply
  5. Tom Matowitz
    Tom Matowitz says:

    Since you know the area, I’m sure you’re familiar with Burke Lakefront Airport. I did night flying training there as well. Taking off to the east I reached a point where I had to make a 90 degree and head north over the lake. With a CFI sitting next to me and a panel full of functioning flight instruments I had an overwhelming sensation that the airplane was rolling right on the verge going inverted. I thought I was prepared psychologically. It turns out I really wasn’t. Very quickly another left turn to downwind revealed the airport and the lights of Cleveland. My equilibrium returned, but that first left turn was one the most uncomfortable moments I ever spent in an airplane.
    It was an excellent commercial for obtaining an instrument rating !

    Reply
    • Kenneth Ott
      Kenneth Ott says:

      During my helicopter ATP ride 13 years ago, I got the leans under the hood several times upon roll out level from a turn. Autopilot use was not permitted and I locked in on the attitude indicator fighting the sensation.

      My last fuel stop at BKL was just like the winter weather this week. Snow pack ramp with ice patches and a cold gusty wind blowing snow in a zig zag pattern in front of Signature Air at night. I have been there on better weather days and always had fun making my departure over the stadium and downtown.

      Reply
  6. Louis DiGiovanni
    Louis DiGiovanni says:

    I personally love flying at night. Many of the same caveats of course, know you weather, airports, etc. I certainly will avoid airports in mountainous areas and extra care with know obstacles. It sure is easy to spot all the other aircraft and there is a lot less traffic.
    Having an instrument rating and a G1000 adds tremendous situational awareness. The rewards are beautifully lit up towns and cities. And sometimes on slow nights ATC controllers used to a more hectic daytime pace get a little lonely and will gladly engage in a little conversation.

    Reply
  7. RichR
    RichR says:

    July 4th with a full moon rising over ocean during fireworks was worth a nx flt in my SE piston, even my less than aeromedically adapted wife was excited to go, otherwise not so much this decade.

    Just remember, Venus always has the right of way, but if you do try to join on it, it will take a while…

    Reply
    • Mike McGinn
      Mike McGinn says:

      I totally disagree, but I will say that night flying requires a LOT more planning and a MUCH tighter risk tolerance level than a day VFR hop. I flew a Cessna 172 (actually an old USAF T-41C) at night from Rockland, ME (non-towered airport) to NAS Patuxent River, MD (tower was closed when I arrived, airfield was using non-towered procedures) and flew the Hudson River VFR corridor at midnight (what a beautiful sight, I wish I could post the pictures here!). Although I was monitoring all the appropriate enroute frequencies to maintain situational awareness, I didn’t talk directly to a single soul for the entire flight, other than making the mandatory position calls in the Hudson River VFR corridor and the appropriate traffic calls at each airport as I departed and arrived. I will agree that in instrument rating make you a better (and safer) pilot, but you can fly and entire lifetime without one.

      Reply
  8. Dale
    Dale says:

    Night flying in Vietnam was FUN! We turned all external lights off — if someone wanted to see where you were, they would ask you to “Go Christmas Tree” — with the port light red, the starboard light green and a flashing strobe, or rotating beacon, you could say you’ve gone Christmas tree! However, you rarely did do that because the bad guys were pretty good at shooting at lights. I would land at Danang after dark with all my external lights off (including the landing light) because it was not uncommon to get shot at in the landing pattern. I wouldn’t turn on any lights until I pulled into the dearming area and then I only turned on my position lights so the dearming crew knew where I was. Later, I was giving a new guy a night checkout and was going to include a ‘blackout landing’ i.e., no lights whatsoever, to include the landing light, as part of that checkout! It had rained pretty hard before we arrived at our OV-10 and the wind had blown water into the rear cockpit (where I was sitting on a wet ejection seat) and the circuit breaker panel, which was behind my seat got pretty wet. When the ‘student’ was on a non-precision approach, there was a big bright flash over my shoulder and we lost ALL our lighting (inside and out) as well as our radios and intercom. I was the only one with a flashlight and I pulled myself up out of my ejection seat (I always strapped in tightly, but I overcame that with the adrenaline coursing through my body), shone my flashlight on his instrument panel, and hollered “Can you read your instruments?” He hollered back, YES!” I then hollered, “Make this a full-stop!” Tower apparently saw what had happened to us and gave us a green light to land, but I was going to land us no matter what! We landed and pulled off at the first available intersection and waited for tower to give us another green light to taxi back to the chocks. That was a memorable night flight!

    Reply
  9. John
    John says:

    I am eternally grateful to my CFII, with whom I did most of my instrument training at night. There is no way to get the peripheral visual cues that can be sensed flying with Goggles during the day, when it’s dark outside the plane. It was a great exposure to the physical sensations that lead to spatial disorientation.

    Reply
  10. Dan Marotta
    Dan Marotta says:

    Last time I was in the vicinity, I distinctly recall that Cleveland is EAST of Eirie, not west.

    Nice article, BTW, and though I’ve been instrument rated for over 50 years, I don’t fly at night or in clouds anymore. My Cessna 180 has only one engine and I don’t relish the thought of gliding down into the unknown at night or in IMC.

    Reply

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