Night cross-country

Last night Joel and I met at Glacier at 8 pm for my required night cross-country flight.

I had planned out a flight from KOLM to Port Angeles (KCLM), about 65 direct-line miles north northwest of Olympia. At night, there is an emphasis on radio navigation rather than visual waypoints, since even decent-sized towns are often hard to see from aloft. I used two VOR beacons (one at Olympia and one at Paine Field in Everett) in the flight plan, relying on both the directional and distance information they provide to navigate in the dark. As it turned out, there were more than a few visible waypoints along the way (airports, the Bangor navy yard north of Bremerton, and the towns of Port Townsend and Sequim), but I really enjoyed the planning and execution of a flight based largely on radio navigation. When I go for my instrument rating eventually, this will be an important skill and I don't mind getting familiar with it now.

I also decided to avail myself of all the services the Federal government has to offer. I filed flight plans with the FAA, which is not required for VFR flights, but is a great safety measure. What a VFR flight plan amounts to is telling the FAA when to expect your arrival at your destination, and if you don't call them within 30 minutes of that expected time, they call search and rescue to come find you. Should something ever go wrong, it can dramatically improve the chances that you get necessary help in a timely fashion.

I also used VFR flight following all the way up and back. As with flight plans, VFR pilots do not need to talk to air traffic control, except in the controlled airspace around busy airports (like the tower at KOLM). However, upon request, ATC will provide "advisories" to VFR pilots--basically, providing another set of eyes to watch for traffic. I believe this is one of the easiest and most effective ways a pilot can improve safety, and I plan to use it on every single cross country flight.

The flight itself was really fun. The sights in the Puget Sound area--Olympia, Tacoma, Seattle, Bremerton, Sequim, and Port Angeles--are stunning on a clear night. The air was generally smooth, and I was as relaxed at the controls as I've been yet. We actually shut down the engine in Port Angeles and got out to stretch our legs. There was no one else at KCLM and it was eerily quiet.

One of the cooler things I experienced was using pilot-controlled lighting. At non-towered airports (or at airports like KOLM after the tower closes at 8 pm) the lights are generally off, or at very low intensity, to save electricity. Pilots can turn on and dim the lights by keying the push-to-talk button on the radio a specified number of times. As we approached KOLM last night, all we could see was the beacon, but like magic after I clicked seven times, the whole field lit up like a Christmas tree. I believe, in terms of raw wattage output, that this was the most powerful thing I've ever done :).

The flight finished up with a practice instrument approach--something Joel and I have made fairly standard coming into Olympia from the north. He tells me what the pretend ceiling is (last night it was 600 feet) and I'm not allowed to look out the windshield until we hit that altitude. I did pretty well, and logged a bit of my required time under simulated instrument conditions.

We shut down at Glacier just after 11 pm. First solo cross-country flight today--to Kelso, Washington, on the Columbia River near Portland.