Night Flying

As soon as I achieved my private pilots license I began working on my night endorsement. I'm not one to enjoy any restrictions on me. To have a pilots license without a night rating would drive me nuts. I'm not a time watcher at the best of times and to have to be watching the time as to when you can fly and when you can't would be far too restrictive.

One time that nightfall would have become restrictive is a trip I made with my wife, Doris, from Dawson Creek to Abbotsford. Now this should be a 4 1/2 hr. trip at best. Unknown to me my motor was very tired and was insidiously loosing power. Trips were taking me longer and longer. I just thought that I was the unluckiest pilot in the world as the wind was against me no mater which direction I flew. After all the engine only had 1/2 the hrs of life expectancy.

We left Dawson Creek after Doris finished work. Plenty of time to make it in daylight. Once again I was determined to fly direct. After all this is the most economical means of transportation. And once again there was a cloud cover just above the rocky mountains. The clouds were heavily scattered and I began flying under, over, and around in an attempt to get over the top. At one point I reached 13,300' above sea level before the clouds began to lower and break up. I was able to drop back down to 10,000' above sea level.

After almost 4 hrs. of flight, and not being close to our destination, I began to calculate how much fuel i had on board. I have a tendency to error on the side of too much fuel. I don't like the anxious feeling one gets as a pilot without enough fuel. I once asked my instructor which was better: to be overweight and have extra fuel, or be under maximum weight and barely enough fuel. I knew he couldn't give me an illegal answer, such as to fly overweight, but i did like his answer. He said, " The only time you have too much fuel is if you are on fire!"

The sun was setting quickly and my gps told me were were approaching 108 mile house. Feeling the need for a leg stretch, (and pee break), I decided to drop down and pick up a bit of fuel just to make sure we would have enough. 108 mile house has pilot activated runway lighting so I activated the lighting, entered the traffic pattern and landed. After all there were few airports between 108 mile house and Abbotsford with lighting. Something to consider should the flight not go as planned. Most small airports have self serve fuel stations so I pulled up along side the pumps. A gentleman approached us and by now the idea of a pee break was a little more urgent. He instructed us where there was a washroom we could use and we were off. Upon return we found that he had filled us to the rim with fuel. So now we set off once again getting close to maximum weight with fuel for another 6 +hrs. of flight.

By now dusk was well underway as we left 108 mile house and headed directly for Abbotsford. Darkness quickly developed and all indications of any horizon soon faded away. Flying direct left no highway or civilization below us causing any visual below to be black. This darkness blended with the dark horizon which blended with the darkness of the night sky. Even the stars gave little light. The eye strain of trying to establish a horizon while maintaining our course became very tiresome. The lighting required to read the instruments just made looking out that much darker. Finally I just quit looking out and began to fly strictly by instruments. I may as well have been flying in the clouds for all one could see.

After approximately an hour of flying by instruments I could see horizon ahead of us. This horizon was created by all the city lights of Vancouver and the valley. We were about an hour from our destination. I could once again fly by visual. We arrived in Abbotsford just after control said "good night". We parked our plane and called our son to let him know we had arrived and he could pick us up. Total flight time almost 6 1/2 hrs.

The engine made that trip two more times before I brought it in for an annual check-up and the mechanics found iron filings in the oil filter and iron slivers in the screen. I am now waiting patiently while the entire motor is rebuilt to factory specs. 0 time as it is called. Some day soon we will once again sore with the eagles.