Long flight in the DARK

[Air1 136]

Flying a job, 153 miles to Dillingham with a 8knt quartering tail wind. Really rough air, had to hand fly all the way, would not hold a heading. Ok, find the airfield and land, will not trigger. Take off again and land from the other end, still no trigger, grrrrr. No choice but to take off again and do a nose dive into the ground, ouch. Back to the checkpoint and land again, all is OK. In the PITCH dark. Still say the runway lights are not near as bright as they should be. I remember very intense lights, not spread out blobs. Almost 10,000 points anyway. My hands are shaking, this is why I love flight, never had that feeling with ANY other flight simulator, a game, not to me. Very near 1 mil now.

[RoboRay 126]

Dillingham has lights? :lol:

[Air1 136]

^{Something was lighting the runway, sort of.}

[Mickel 42]

It's something I'd like to see added to the airport details - a little (L) for lights next to the runway length if that runway has lights on it. Would make night jobs easier to select. Some you would expect to have lights don't, and some do that you wouldn't!

 

Mike

[DMagick 0]

It doesn't have runway lights, but it's kind of lined on one side with lights, and the structures at one end are lit up fairly well, so it does stand out in an otherwise dark area.

[Air1 136]

_{Yes, Dillingham is well enough lighted to land easily, I did it four times in about 10 minutes. We used to turn the runway lights on at uncontroled fields during approch by clicking the unicom freq so many times, that would be neat. I don't know if that is still utilized today, it has been awhile.}

[RoboRay 126]

Lighting availability should be included on the airfield data window. It is kind of important.

 

I never paid attention as I don't do many night flights, but I guess I will see if the Flight lighting status for all fields matches what's on the sectional.

 

I do recall Dillingham not being lighted in Flight, though, and I'm pretty sure it's not in real life, either.

 

[kentoo 0]

I had a similar experience .. weather was set to thunderstorms... winds of up to 50 kts , I swear the thunderstorm followed me for a hundred miles or else it was that big. The flight took me over an hour and at no time was I able to fly hands off... loved every minute of it.

[LuisFelizTirado 33]

I've done some of those night flights into unlit runways as well, a real mistake! Hard to see anything at all!

 

Best regards.

Luis

[EastCoastGuy 0]

Yeah -- that frickin' useless co-pilot whines about the plane being too heavy (when it's not) or not having enough fuel (when it does) but doesn't tell me that our target airfield has no grazzlefrappin runway lights?!?

 

*Beats copilot senseless with wrench*

[jcomm 5,930]

I swear the thunderstorm followed me for a hundred miles or else it was that big

 

Were you able to see/listen to the thunders?

[XCaligulaX 0]

I chose to use the actual time in Hawaii for my flights, and since there is a 12-hour time difference where I currently live, most of the flights I make are night flights. It's a much different experience, specially with those smaller strips. Great fun though.

[kentoo 0]

Were you able to see/listen to the thunders?

I don't recall hearing thunder but there were flashes that I assume were lightning. Since it was night I couldn't see much. I would have been in serious trouble had I been flying a cockpitless aircraft. Mercifully the heavy turbulence abated about ten kts from my destination [barking Sands] and I was able to land with only a 15 kt crosswind.

[RoboRay 126]

There are unfortunately no thunder and lightning effects in Flight.

 

The flashing you saw is a cockpit lighting bug. It seems that it can occur whenever the sun is shining on your instrument panel.

[kentoo 0]

There are unfortunately no thunder and lighting effects in Flight.

 

The flashing you saw is a cockpit lighting bug. It seems that it can occur whenever the sun is shining on your instrument panel.

That would explain not hearing thunder and explain the flashes of light that I saw, which incidentally always seemed to be behind me.