Date Night

I let my night currency lapse over the summer but with the early sunset, I headed out last week and completed three take offs and landings to a full stop.   Now that I was current I could once again carry passengers at night.  Who better than my wife so I planned a date night.  

Technically this would not be a full night flight.  We would depart just after sunset which does not count as night, night starts at 30 minutes after sunset.  Landing currency only counts an hour after sunset.  As you can see from the pictures, It's not really dark right after sunset.    We headed up to the airport around 4:50, gave the plane a good preflight and checked the lights.  We spun the props at offical sunset, 5:26 which meant it was still rather bright.  

I went ahead and put on all the internal lights as darkness sneaks up on you and it's best to be fully set up.  On departure we headed North up the coast.  I was hoping to make the sun rise.  You can bring the sun into view by climbing if it's just after sunset.  You are just playing with the geometry but today we had solid clouds out West so there was no bringing the suns disc back into view. 

Heading to Saint Simons we went from twighlight to darkness and by the time we were making our turn to head home, the people on the ground were in the dark.  We still had a gentle glow at 3,000' but it started to fade quickly.  Soon it was really dark, night had arrived and it was time for us to land.  My landing was good, not perfect but not jarring and with no other traffic, I let the plane roll down the runway and saved my brakes.

The taxi back to the hangar was quick.  I had dimmed my hangar lights which was good as there was plenty of light to see but it was not blinding.  We had the plane put away, the chocks set and the hangar closed in short order.  Part two of the date was dinner at Safe Harbor seafood.   It's been a while since I have gotten back to the place and it's still great.  Fresh seafood and I like sitting out on the river.  We even got to see a large car carrier making her way out to sea.  And yes the iPhone does make night look like day.

I really enjoy night flight when I have a second engine and we started strategizing dinner locations for future dates.