I have something of a love-hate relationship with night flying. On one hand, I love the view of a city lit up at night, or the stars overhead, when away from ground lighting. There’s also the relatively low activity levels at airports and on ATC frequencies, the smoother air and how it’s easier to spot traffic. On the other hand, the obvious inability to spot unlighted objects is a major hindrance, as is the human eye’s poor adaptation to low-light environments. And our equipment is less-forgiving at night: lighting can fail and if a single’s engine quits beyond gliding range from a lighted landing area, risk increases dramatically.
All of these downsides have mitigations, however. If we’re worried about engine failure, for example, we can fly a twin—even if doing so increases other risks—or we can fly at altitudes and along routes that minimize the length of time we’re not able to glide to a well-lit runway. We can compensate for our eyes’ inability to see well at night by understanding these limitations and minimizing their impact. And even if we’re not instrument-rated, we can adopt various IFR procedures to help ensure we avoid terrain or obstacles we can’t see. All of these mitigations require some additional planning, however, and perhaps some extra equipment.
