Night Operations Flashcards
Types of Night
Sunset to Sunrise 🌅
- equipment requirements for 91.205 (FLAPS)
- lighting requirements 91.209
1 hour after sunset to 1 hour before sunrise
- currency for carrying PAX at night 61.57
End of evening civil twilight to beginning of morning civil twilight (6° below horizon)
- logging night time 61.51 & 1.1
- you need 100 hours of night for ATP; also each additional night landing over 20 may be used to substitute 1 night hour (max of 25 hours) for ATP.
Cones, Rods
Cones - center of vision, detail and color.
Rods - 20x more sensitive to light contain rhodopsin, a protein sensitive to light. No color.
Night blind spot.
Recovery time
Blind spots
Optic nerve blind spot PHAK 17-21
Night blind spot (cones) - center of vision in fovia
Off center viewing 5-10° is required for night scanning
Dark adaptation
30 minutes for rods to adjust
1000x more sensitive
Temporary blindness
Can lose night vision in a second
Avoid looking at bright lights at night
False horizon
pattern of lights
Water
Terrain
Sloping clouds
Visual autokinesis
Stare at light on ground
- Eyeball moves sightly as it tries to focus
- this creates an illusion of the light or airplane moving
2020 study
- affects 1/3 of pilots
- 20 seconds to occur
- break gaze for 5 seconds
- moving arms
Somatogravic illusion
Rapid acceleration or deceleration
sensation of pitching up or down
Flickering vertigo
Black hole approach aka featureless terrain illusion
Difficulty recognizing low slope
Use slope lights
Ground lighting illusion
Mistaking other ground light for runway lights
Tips
- familiar with airport lights (study chart, chart supplement)
- terrain and obstruction awareness
- illusion awareness
- be prepared to navigate on instruments
- be ready to fly on instruments
- Protect vision - sunglasses 😎
- Proper preflight planning and notams: obstacle and airport lighting, any pilot controlled lighting
- Physical condition can impair condition - eat your veggies
- Off center viewing
- Use O2 > 5000
- 30 minutes to adapt; eye patch
What is the definition of Night?
Night is defined as the period between the end of evening civil twilight and the beginning of morning civil twilight.
Civil twilight is defined as the time when the center of the sun is 6 degrees below the horizon.
If your recent flight requirements are not met for night flight, what is the latest time you may carry passengers?
The latest time you may carry passengers is one hour after SS.
What must be logged to carry passengers at night? When?
3 takeoff and 3 landing to a full stop during the period of 1 hour after SS to one hour before SR
