Light'em up boys!

As most of you know Brian is a pilot. He has a odd schedule that is ever changing and I don't even try to keep up with it. When he is home he is home, when he is gone, he will be home when he is home, not necessarily when he tells me.

This involves flying at all times, day, night, dusk, dawn, you name it he fly's during that time.

Fact:
The risk of dying in a traffic crash increases significantly when darkness falls. The fatality rate
doubles during the period of time from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m.
Midnight to 3 a.m. on Saturdays is the deadliest 3-hour period, resulting in nearly 1,250 fatal
crashes.
All crashes (fatal and Injury) occurring at night (9 p.m. – 6 a.m.), including property-damage-only crashes – 1,034,000
Crashes at night involving pedestrians – 15,937 (1,937 pedestrian fatalities)
Crashes at night involving bicyclists – 4,204 (204 pedestrian fatalities)
Crashes at all times of day involving animals – 292,000 (165 human fatalities)
Three percent of drivers (1,852) in fatal crashes are killed after swerving or taking an avoiding action to miss another vehicle, object in the road, etc.

Another 1.8 percent (1,050) had their vision obscured.


On the other hand about one-tenth of all general aviation accidents occur at night, while fewer than 10 percent of the flying is done after dark.

Presuming that night flying is more dangerous than day flying on the basis of statistics is a fallacy. The airplane does not discriminate between light and dark.
Conditions of night flight are different from daytime flying and it is the pilot's knowledge, or lack of it, combined with a lack of visual clues that present an extra challenge.
night vision: Even a competent attitude-instrument pilot will need to use his outside vision during a night flight, if only in the transition during takeoff and landing.
What he does or doesn't see in the dark is dependent on the state of dark adaption of his eyes.
For example if you enter a dark area, everything is seems very dark, and your vision improves slowly. After six to seven minutes your eyes are 100 times more sensitive than when you entered the dark. Your eyes take 30 min. to fully adapt, at which time the rods of the eye are 100,000 time more sensitive.
This is due to the build-up of a photosensitive chemical called visual purple, the key to night vision. Visual purple is dependent on vitamin A (carrots, eggs, milk, cheese and most vegetables). Vitamin A cannot be stored by the body; so it is very important to eat a balanced meal before night flying.
Although it takes 30 minutes for dark adaptation to occur, it can be lost in a second or two of exposure to bright light. I know that when I drive at night I have a hard time seeing if I have a light on in the car. Brian will minimize the use of white light in the cockpit, normally a red light is used. If a white light (flashlight) is used it is important to keep it as dim as possible.
I know I have given you a ton of useless facts on our ever important eye, but it all ties into my story, well mostly.



Brian's boss just leased a home in Alpine WY for a few months and has enjoyed spending time there. Brian has flown in and out of a neighboring airport, and landed at this private airport in Alpine one other time during the day. This would be the first time landing at this small private airport at night in the JET (not a small plane). Oh did I mention, normally while flying at night as you near an airport a pilot will simply click his radio three times to turn on the runway lights. Clicking the radio several more times will brighten the lights and give a clear set of lights down the runway lighting it up for a night landing.

Alpine however, being a private airstrip has no landing lights. The owner has good intentions of putting some in but not for another year or so. Brian, knowing that this is his first time into this airport at night and also knowing that there will be no runway lights, uses google earth to set up an instrument approach system. (not typical) Then he calls the owner of the airpark and tells him that he will be flying in after dark and asked the owner if he would mind parking his truck at the end of the runway and shine his lights down the runway. The owner agrees and asked that Brian call on the radio about 5 minutes out and then again about 1 minute out. Brian agrees and takes off out of California.

At 5 minutes out he calls on the radio. Then again at 1 minute out, this time he hears the owner say, "light'em up boys." At this point Brian can now see the owner's truck at the end of the runway shinning his lights down the runway. Then he sees a set of red flares light up a few yards down, then another and another down the runway lighting it up for Brian. He came in over the truck around 10-15 feet and greased the Jet onto the runway. Brian said it was so cool to see the flares light up down the runway. I think that it would have been cool to be able to turn on lights with 3 clicks of a radio.



I remember Brian telling me that the moment the airplane leaves the ground on a dark night, it is enveloped in black. Outside visual reference becomes impossible. Brian use to call the flight home from California in the dark(in a single engine airplane), flying in a black hole. He said he felt very alone and uncertain until he would see lights.
Even with pre-flight planning, including studying charts and developing a plan of action you still, at some time during a night flight, are going to experience a moment of fear about terrain clearance.

I do however worry more about Brian driving home from the Salt Lake airport or driving over from Alpine WY to my parents house for Thanksgiving dinner in bad weather, than I worry about him flying at night. My level of concern rises when I know he is tired, alone, bored, or has been drinking his 64 oz of water for the Biggest loser Challenge and spends most of his time in the back of the airplane.