Night Flying

Wow, wow, wow. Thats quite possibly the only word capable of emphasising the effect that taking off down a lit runway into the infinity of darkness had on me. It was great. Having never flown a light aircraft at night before, i was eager to try it to say the least. As if i didnt have enough on my plate, after having to sit the severn JAA written exasm in two weeks, along with a skills test and a comms exam, i decided that the nigth rating was an addition that i wanted to grasp whilst at Anglo.

Nav lights flashing, Strobe lights on and off we wnt down the runway. As the 60 kts marker was reached on the ASI and the backwards pressure on the yolk started to lift the nose off the well lit runway, the feeling that we are not alone in the universe suddenly dawned on me. Perhasp this was because of the perfect view that was provided of the stars above San Diego. Although the first two hours, one of which was dual and the other of which was solo, were both circuit flights, staying well within the vacinity of Gillespie, the fun still kept on coming.

After dropping Jason, my instructor off, the feelign of excitment quickly over whelmed my body. Taking off now had a whole new meaning to it. It was fantastic. After listning to a new student trying to make his take off announcment, trying being the opperative word due to the five minutes it took him lol, the runway lights decided to switch off. Although this is a normal routine event every fifteen minutes, it was not widely appreciated by me as i was on short finals at 300 feet when it occured lol. Although they say to flick the trasmit button on the VHF 5 times to turn them back on, im sure i pressed it more like 20, in my wild attempts to relight the quickly approaching runway.

All in all, the flying was amazing. The combination of the perfect views of the local area, which seemed to be lit like an electric carpet, the lack of wind and the eerie calmless of the night sky meant that it is perhaps one of the best times to relax and fly at once.