 Ladies and gentlemen, if I may have your attention, please. I'd give me odds yesterday, and I don't think I'd have taken the bet, especially since I missed the last commercial flight out of St. Louis. But here I am. That's me on the right, the guy on the left. That's my partner, Fred Miller. When I called Fred from St. Louis, he was already waiting for me in Phoenix. And this particular cattle sale was important to both of us. We needed the best breeding stock available. And it was right here on John Wayne's 26-bar ranch just outside of Phoenix. And this sale was a once-a-year thing. But I made it with time to spare. Thanks to the night-flying know-how of a charter pilot on an interesting dust to dawn flight, commercial flight from Phoenix. This trip will give me the chance I've been looking for. That's Dave Hastings, my pilot. We seem to hit it off right from the start. It comes on mighty fast, doesn't it? Yeah, it sure does. Pretty to look at. A little different to flying though. Flight instructor. Have you ever done most of your flying, Jim? All around Nashville, old VFR, fair weather flying. A couple free takeoffs and landings at night. This was my chance to get a lot of questions answered so I'd feel better qualified to fly cross-country on my home. If you know what you're doing, flying at night can be very enjoyable. One thing, the air is usually smoother at night. I'm aware of that. I know there's not so much turbulence now. And there's fewer pilots using the airspace, so of course there's a lot less traffic. However, you still have to be a weather going to come across the daytime today about night flying. They were even more enjoyable for any pilot, you know, wants to take the trouble to learn. I got nothing better to do for them. I'm ready, willing, and able. We can fly an airplane with practically no instruments. But when we talk about vision, we're speaking of two types, both the day and the night. Our color vision is greatly curtailed, particularly at night, without a sufficient oxygen supply. As the flight continued to our first stop, Oklahoma City, I thought I spotted something. The plane over there at two o'clock. Well, I don't see it. Right there. The reflect then. And that's exactly what it was. A reflection from our instruments. At night, you lose a lot of visual cues that you count on in the daytime. Unless there's plenty of light on the ground, you don't have a good horizon to judge your attitude by. You can't see trees or buildings to judge altitude or height above the obstacle. Reflexes that cue responses in daytime flying are frequently missing at night. Now, if you've become too engrossed with duties in the cockpit and then look up, you may experience spatial disorientation or even vertigo. To cope with this problem, always check your flight instruments before glancing out of the cockpit. And when glancing down, always check the flight instruments again to make sure of the airplane's attitude. Now, if you have prolonged cockpit tasks, break them up with an occasional glance at your flight instruments. Another thing, whenever darkness descends, keep track of aircraft attitude continually. Always avoid sudden or abrupt attitude changes. They only increase the likelihood of disorientation. Now, if you become unsure of the attitude of your aircraft, go to your flight instruments. Stay with them until you're again sure you have the attitude that you want. Hey, it looks like it pays to know how to use your instruments, even if you're not IFR rated. That's very true. There'd be a lot fewer night-flying accidents if more BFR pilots do how to use the instruments they've got more effectively. Once you've established a straight flight path, either by using your instruments or by using outside references, carefully note the position of the prominent stars on the windshield. Straight flight path simply by keeping the stars in the same place. Then you can scan for other aircraft or enjoy the sights on the ground or whatever. Oklahoma City, coming up. Commander, 9 or 0, 9 or 4 November, inter-left base runway 1-7 left. Wind 180 degrees at 1-0. Altimeter 297-5, over. 24 star, 9-0, 9-4 November, we'll report left base. Well, it's like going quick. Unless, of course, you're using precision instrument approach aids. Now, since you can't see objects on the ground and judge heights, there's a tendency to come in low. But if your speed is right, your power setting quite low, you'll have a fairly steep and safe approach angle. If we had daylight, there'd be reference points here, but of course we don't have any at night. Bring it in too low, you'll hit the wire. This landing we're about to make here in Oklahoma City will give you a chance to see the proper attitude to use on landing at night. A good tip to remember is to complete the final turn as you would in daylight. Rolling out on final and a familiar height and distance. As at any time, Jim, control is very important, but it's one engine aircraft. You always want to make sure that you maintain your best single engine rate of climb speed until landing is assured on your final approach. Slow that down to 1.3 over the fence. This will prevent you from floating down the runway and possibly overshooting the field. 9-0-4 November, cleared to land, over. 9-0-9 for November, Roger. In judging your turn on final approach, use the runway lights as your principal reference to initiate the final turn. Even though you've used your landing checklist, recheck gear down and lock. When you turn on final, Jim, turn on your landing lights. Adjust your throttle and attitude as necessary to control your descent and air speed. Use off the power until the main gear touches the runway. Then, of course, be sure that your power is off. Commander, nine full of emmer attacks into the ramp, over. While the airplane was being refueled, Dave recapped the difference between day and night approach near the end of the runway. Okay, here is where air speed control is really important because if you exceed normal approach speed, you're going to have problems. You mean 1.3 times the stall in the landing configuration coming in over the fence. That's right, that's right. Using excessive speeds can result in you're overshooting the entire runway. All right, Dave, now let me ask you this. What should you do if you misjudge your approach? Well, if it doesn't look good, just take it right on around again. If there's a vacay available, use it to help set up your final approach. In any event, Jim, it's going to pay you to take the time to practice night landings under various conditions. Now, when you're practicing, you're handing me that knife a minute. Now, when you practice, look critically at the perspective created by the runway lights and the approach lights. Now, the thing to do here is mentally photograph and remember this pattern on the approaches that go well. See? Right. As Dave made his pre-flight inspection, I became aware of the fact that it takes longer to inspect the plane. So we'll offer it. A complete inspection should include a check of all lighting equipment as well as the regularly inspected items. In the process, you've got to be sure that windows, windshield, and instrument faces are reasonably clean since maximum light transmission will be required with minimum glare or diffusion. Whenever possible, sit in relative darkness to increase the level of dark adaptation again before takeoff. Body post ground control, commander 9094 November, terminal ramp, taxi for takeoff. Over. Command area 9094 November, taxi to runway 17 left. Wind 170 degrees at 8, altitude 297, sex over. 9094 November. Keep alert for ground traffic. The tendency for most pilots is to taxi too fast at night because of reduced visual cues and not giving much thought to ground traffic. There's no talent when a vehicle will pop right up out of the darkness. I asked Dave how we knew which way to taxi with all those colored lights. Blue lights outline the taxi areas. Now in some cases you're going to run into this new taxiway light. It's a green, much-mounted center line type. Commander 904 November, taxi in position and hold over. Well, here we go again, Jim. Taking off at night, line up your aircraft in the center of the runway. And don't overlook your flight instrument checks and adjustments. And align your heading indicator to runway heading. Commander 904 November, cleared for takeoff. 904 November. Airway lights as guides for directional control. Many pilots use the landing lights during takeoff. Not the point of rotation or soon thereafter. Before the last two runway lights pass behind you, check your instruments for indication of climb attitude. Keep your wings level and hold takeoff attitude and give you a straight climb. Checking the instruments frequently until you've reached a safe altitude of at least four or five hundred feet. Always check outside for other aircraft. Visual references as you maneuver away from the field. You don't have to become instrument-rated to fly at night, but it sure does help. As we headed west to Albuquerque, Dave showed me how to use the en-route charts to get the minimum instrument en-route altitude. He recommended that even though flying VFR, the minimum en-route altitude should be observed when flying at night. This definitely assured us terrain clearance. Radio, this is Commander 909-40500 VFR to Albuquerque. Here I learned another value of minimum en-route altitude. With a strong westerly wind blowing on the airport at Albuquerque, Dave knew that there was a good possibility of a venturi effect in the pass we were flying into. A venturi effect that could give us an erroneous altimeter reading of as much as 1500 feet. You see the wind moving through the restricted area of the pass results in increased velocity which reduces atmospheric pressure. Now as an aircraft flies into this area, this reduced pressure produces a false altimeter reading giving you the impression that you're higher than you really are. Now for pilot compensates, by descending to maintain the desired indicated altitude, well you may find these below the level of the pass. Albuquerque approach control, this is Commander 909-4 November, 10 east, landing Albuquerque over. 280 degrees, one zero, alt point three. Roger, 909-4 November. To play it safe we stayed high. Starting our descent only when the lights of Albuquerque made it obvious we had plenty of mountain clearance. I had trouble locating the runway lights among all the street lights. We were on final before I spotted them. While they topped off our tanks we went into the flight service station. While they have got the latest sequence report, I studied the airport layout charts. When operating from an unfamiliar field, pilots should take the trouble to study the airport layout before departing. It'll reduce confusion during taxi to takeoff. Well it looks like we've got sky cover all the way to Phoenix. What does that mean? No stars, no moon. It's going to be just blacker and black the whole way. What about lights on the ground? No, there's not going to be many. We're going to have to rely pretty heavily on instruments. And I can also use the autopilot. Ready? Let's go. This got us to a safe maneuvering altitude as soon as possible. Then in case of an emergency we knew we'd be high than any obstructions in route back to the airport. In route Dave filled me in on smoking. He said that it tends to cut down on the amount of oxygen a pilot takes in from the atmosphere as he breathes. The lack of oxygen decreases a pilot's visual acuity. Since we were climbing to 12,500 feet we went on oxygen. This additional oxygen improves a pilot's visual perception and mental alertness. Alcohol also decreases a pilot's ability to see at night, even more so than smoking. Removed our oxygen masks after we passed the mountains and began our descent into Phoenix. Don't even look. How can you be sure you've touched the right things? It takes practice. You have to spend time in the cockpit, familiarizing yourself with the location and the feel of everything. And then you just perform the same operations blindfolded. Good thing someone else was doing the flying. Without a horizon for a reference I'd have this serious trouble. What are you doing? Well now I'm cross-checking my position along my planned route. Why? We have a problem. I want to know within a few miles where we are. Can I see the map? Down there, eh Dave? Yeah, right. If you, if any of them, are going to have anything like the elaborate lighting setup that we've seen at the major airports we've been landing at so far. What's the name of the airport in Phoenix? Sky Harbor. Phoenix has several other small airports situated around the city. There are mountains in that area and you have to be careful that you keep your pattern in close to the airport. Give yourself as much clearance as possible. I keep these mountains in mind. Those dark areas down there among the lights of Phoenix look like parks but in daylight you'll find out that they're really mountains. What kind of conditions will we run into at Sky Harbor? There it is right ahead. You can't find it with all those lights. One way to beat that problem is to fly the radio from the Omni that takes you over the airport. Go away Jim. Simply check your chart. Look at the position of the airport. It relates to the rest of the city. That'll give you an idea toward a look. We had a nice safe night flight and we made it with plenty of time to spare. Mr. Dunway. And welcome to the 26th bar. We're certainly proud to have you here and we're proud of our bulls this year and you kind of toss the coins for which one you'd want. Hi Mr. Dunway. By the lucky domino at 216 out of a K-lob domino bred chow, the auction is on and tell me how many other points. I'm on 25,000 on it. I'm 25 to go give me 10,000 dollars on it. I'm 10,000, 10,000, 10,000, 11,000, 10,000, 11,000, 12,000, 11,000, 12,000, 11,000, 12,000, 12,000, 12,000, 12,000, 13,000, 13,000, 14,000, 15,000, 14,000, 15,000, I'm at 15,000, 16,000, 15,000, 16,000,