Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark
Practice, Preparation, and Proficiency for Safe and Enjoyable Night Flights
By Rebekah Waters, FAA Safety Briefing
Nothing beats the peace and serenity of a night flight. Cruising through the night sky after dark is a beautiful experience. But night flying comes with some inherent risks that might make you afraid of taking off after twilight. Is it worth it to overcome this fear? Absolutely! For starters, limiting your flights to daytime only cuts down the hours you can operate. Those of us that live in the United States have entered the season of shorter days and longer nights, so the hours in a day available for flying have decreased significantly if you aren’t flying at night.
Things that Go Bump in the Night
There are many scary stories of incidents and accidents at night: from close encounters with terrain to accounts of pilot-controlled airport lighting not turning on because older radio frequency technology didn’t work correctly! Engine failure isn’t more likely to happen at night, but when it does, finding an open place in the inky blackness below for a safe forced landing isn’t an easy endeavor. During the day, you can spot bad weather from miles away, but at night, it can sneak up on you seemingly all at once. With the countless challenges and risks presented by night flying, you might wonder why this fear is worth conquering.
Unmatched Peace and Serenity
To start with, night flying opens up more opportunities for travel. Not only will you have more hours available for flying, but when you fly at night, the airspace is usually less congested. Airspace tends to open up and become easier to navigate at night. Less congested airspace also means fewer radio calls. The pilot who can fly at night is a pilot who can truly enjoy the solitude of flight without the distractions of air traffic more common in the daytime.
In addition, flying at night can give you a a fresh perspective on landscapes, cities, and landmarks that you’ve flown over during the day. Everything looks different in the dark, but instead of being scary, it can be a new way to appreciate the terrain below. The contrast between the dark sky and city lights, especially along coastlines or over large cities, can be breathtaking.
Weather can often be better at night too, adding to the peace and serenity of night flights. During the day the sun heats the earth’s surface, causing air to warm and rise. This creates thermal currents and updrafts that can lead to turbulence — especially over mountains, large bodies of water, or uneven terrain. At night, after the sun sets and the air cools, the atmosphere tends to be more stable — especially at lower altitudes. Cooler air is also denser. This helps to prevent the rising of warmer air masses that might otherwise lead to convective turbulence, and smoother air means less turbulence than daytime flying. At night, winds are likely to be lighter, temperature changes are likely to be fewer, and thunderstorm activity is likely to be reduced. You are left with flying conditions that are more conducive to a smoother and more enjoyable flight.
The pilot who can fly at night is a pilot who can truly enjoy the solitude of flight without the distractions of air traffic more common in the daytime.
Adventure is Out There
Flying at night can feel like a new frontier. Even familiar routes might feel like uncharted territory. And when you’re flying far from the lights of large cities, you might be treated to spectacular celestial views of planets, or maybe even the northern lights.
For pilots who are looking to challenge themselves, night flying is where it’s at. Night flying demands sharp decision-making skills, careful planning, operational discipline, and risk management. Embarking on the adventure of night flying can increase your overall proficiency and confidence as a pilot.
Practice, Preparation, Proficiency
If you’ve read this far, I hope you have been convinced that overcoming the fear of flying at night is worth your while. To bring you the best tips on how to safely enjoy flying after dark, I spoke to two night flying experts: Paul Hamilton and Bob Raskey.
They both note that overcoming a fear of flying at night begins with practice. Find and practice with a flight instructor who has a lot of good night flying experience. Practice things unique to night flights, like dimming and raising panel lights, identifying changes in the weather, and forced landings. Building your confidence with scenarios like these while you have an instructor in the seat next to you is a good way to chip away at your fears.
Hamilton, a seasoned pilot with 38 years of flying experience, still remembers his first night flight.
“It was a required part of my private pilot training, in September of 1986. It was a local flight out of Gaithersburg, Md., [GAI]. I recall how different the sight picture was in a night landing. The flight school did not allow student pilots to make night solos, so my first time alone in the night sky was March 11, 1987, a few weeks after getting my private certificate. I started my instrument rating right after and most of my training was at night, so I had 8.2 night hours by then. I logged 2.4 hours that night, practicing takeoffs and landings and enjoying the beauty of the night.”
While Hamilton never experienced anxiety about flying at night, he points out that the percentage of fatal accidents is a good deal higher at night. For him, practicing flying at night helps him to mitigate the risks to acceptable levels.
“The first step is to recognize that night adds risks, so some fear is appropriate. Like many things, fear is good for you, in moderation. At night, most of us are low-time pilots. I may have just short of 8,000 total hours, but I’m only just a 1,000-hour night pilot. According to Paul, logging some practice with a night-proficient instructor is among the best ways to dispel any nocturnal nervousness.
Raskey was working on helicopters in the National Guard when he got the urge to learn to fly. Because of his day job, most of his flight training happened after sunset. He thinks this is why he’s always felt comfortable flying at night. Like Hamilton, he too advises pilots who want to overcome a fear of flying at night to practice with a seasoned flight instructor until the fear starts to subside.
“I was taught by really good instructors. Learning to fly at night made me comfortable with it, and I love it to this day. The serenity of the sunsets is beautiful,” Raskey told me. “Night flying has its beauty as well as its treachery.” He recommends studying and practicing things like increasing your spatial awareness and adjusting your eyes to the dark to diminish the risks of nighttime flying.
Both Raskey and Hamilton emphasized the importance of practicing simulated emergencies at night. While engine failure at night is not more likely, it is scarier, and the visual references are different. The same goes for the loss of lights. Practice handling simulated emergencies at night so you will be ready to do what’s necessary to stay safe should an emergency arise. “We gain confidence by offsetting the added risks of night with practice and other mitigations,” said Hamilton.
Tasks like preflight inspections and weather briefings are even more important at night.
In addition to practice, Raskey and Hamilton both agree that preparation is key. Before you take off, there are many things to consider. Tasks like preflight inspections and weather briefings are even more important at night. Knowing the cycle of the moon and what airports shut down at night or turn off their lights is also important. Fuel management, while always important, can be even more important at night. Things like diversions to an alternate airport or an issue with the plane that necessitates a forced landing without visual cues make sufficient fuel reserves absolutely necessary. “Be much more conservative at night. Go through a night safety checklist. Study the charts and don’t stretch your limits,” states Raskey.
Inside the cockpit, make sure you have multiple flashlights — including one that can shine red light to save your night vision. If your flight plan is on a tablet, adjust the brightness for nighttime or use a night-sight app. If it’s on paper, remember not to use highlighters since they can make it impossible to see what you highlighted in the cockpit’s dim light. Make sure that you know how to turn the lights on if you are going to land at an airport with pilot-controlled lighting. Always have a plan, and a backup plan in case anything goes wrong.
Proficiency is yet another key to mastering the night sky, and it’s more than just staying current. While currency means you have met the legal requirements to fly at night, proficiency means you are fully competent. Becoming a competent night flyer will help give you the confidence you need to feel comfortable in the evening skies.
Night flying demands sharp decision-making abilities, careful planning, operational discipline and risk management.
The more hours you log at night the more competent you will become as a night flyer. When you are building up your night flying skills, there are a few things you can do to make it easier. Begin by using a familiar plane. Muscle memory for controls like dimming and maximizing the instrument panels goes a long way in ensuring a smooth night flight. Stick to familiar routes. Start off flying a route you’ve flown so often in the daytime, that you almost feel like it’s second nature to you. As you become proficient at night flying, your confidence will build, and your fear will shrink. Start the flight while it is still daylight, so you have the opportunity to slowly transition into night operations.
“Frequent night flying increases your confidence and helps you increase your ability to do the right thing in tough situations,” said Raskey. “But make sure you stay in the confidence sweet spot — not too low, but also not too high. Don’t let overconfidence make you take risks or stretch your limits.”
There’s something special about flying at night. City lights twinkle below you, and stars shine bright above. It is a peace unlike anything daytime flying has to offer. So don’t let a fear of nighttime flying make you miss it. With enough practice, preparation, and proficiency, there’s no reason to be afraid of the dark!
Rebekah Waters is an FAA Safety Briefing associate editor. She is a technical writer-editor in the FAA’s Flight Standards Service.
