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Night Flight

Gemini Sparkle

Key Takeaways:

  • Night flight training proved far more challenging and different than anticipated, requiring a significant shift from visual judgment to instrument reliance for navigation and landing.
  • The pilot struggled with judging wind, maintaining a centerline, and accurately flaring during landings, realizing a subconscious over-reliance on visual cues in day VFR.
  • Fatigue set in after multiple landings, leading to disorientation and emphasizing the critical need for precise instrument flying and navigation aids like GPS.
  • One notable positive observation was the ease of spotting other air traffic at night.
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Wow, what an eye opener! Last night I completed 1.4 hours of my 3-hour night flight-training requirement for the private certificate, single-engine rating, with First Landings Aviation CFI Chris Esposito. I shot 8 full-stop landings in the Remos GX, leaving the last two of the 10 required for my dual cross-country night flight. All I can say is: What a different world than day VFR flight. That should seem obvious to anyone, but until I actually experienced it, I didn’t realize how different it would be and that reading about it in the prep books doesn’t do it justice.

The conditions offered 10 miles viz and a 30- to 40-degree 7- to 10-knot crosswind. Here are just few of my observations:

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