Just got back from my first night flight. An hour of take off and landings with a bit of local sightseeing thrown in for good measure. It was 60 minutes of extra sensory sensitivity not too dissimilar to driving along a country road at 100 KPH in the black of night with your headlights off. The only difference here being the safe thought that you are not going to hit anything, offset by the realisation that things fall pretty quickly from 2,500 ft up and ''oh by the way, where did that horizon go ? '' There is also the constant thought in the back of your head - ''Where the fark is that airport ?'' . Every sense is more alert than the hearing of a prepubescent 14 year old boy doing naughty things to himself with a Playboy magazine in the confines of his bedroom. Aside from the adrenalin pump it is actually a great time to fly. The air is stable and cool and on a good night like I had with the moon reflecting across the waters of the Gulf of Mexico you almost want to hold hands with your instructor and sing kumbaya along with Peter Paul and Mary.
I said, ALMOST.
I had a fellow student in the back who was also doing his night time take off and landings and he kindly recorded the snaps below.
Instrument panel
Good looking noggins. Especially my recently no.2 clippered scon.
Are you trying to tell us you had a wank up there?
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