\u201cYou want to fly at night?\u00a0 Well, you just go over to Tampa International or somewhere else to fly at night.\u00a0 I don\u2019t let my airplanes fly at night.\u201d\u00a0 Charlie looks at me like I have lost my mind.\u00a0 \u201cBut here\u2019s something I am going to tell you.\u00a0 That engine quits at night and you\u2019re gonna be wishing you had a parachute.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n
I can understand what he means, about the parachute.\u00a0 It would be nice to have if the engine failed at night.\u00a0 I remember reading about Lindbergh\u2019s account of running out of gas one night while flying the mail.\u00a0 He had a parachute and he used it.\u00a0 He jumped out of his plane and as he drifted down, the plane kept circling around threatening to hit him in the descent.\u00a0\u00a0It is a great story he tells in his book, The Spirit of St. Louis<\/em>.<\/p>\n While his account was harrowing, Lindbergh also wrote well of flying at night.\u00a0 He was a descriptive writer and after reading about his night flights, a pilot who had not flown at night would be primed to explore.\u00a0 Which is what I want to do.\u00a0 I want to experience everything I can in aviation, including flying in the dark.<\/p>\n Charlie placated me for a while with his comment about wanting a parachute if the engine failed.\u00a0 It made sense; if you were flying around in the dark and the engine quit, it might be hard picking a good place to land.\u00a0 For the longest time, I thought about that scenario.\u00a0 Just what would you do in case the engine quite in the dark?<\/p>\n Later in my career, I would fly at night.\u00a0 It started a lot like Lindbergh\u2019s job of flying the night mail, only I was flying checks for the Federal Reserve as a contract pilot.\u00a0 After that, I flew in the Navy and of course, those guys fly regardless of the time of day.<\/p>\n Flying at night is serious business and if you are not instrument rated or equipped, I would think twice about it.\u00a0 Many of my professional pilot friends will not consider flying single-engine\u00a0at night for the same reasons Charlie gave me over 35 years ago.<\/p>\n One day, I was heading home from a fly-in and my friend, Jim, watched me prepare for the flight.\u00a0 He knew where I was going and how long it would take to get there.\u00a0 He also knew what time I was departing and that I would spend the last hour flying in the dark.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat are you doing?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n \u201cGetting ready to head out.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou know, it is going to be dark in less than an hour.\u00a0 And you\u2019re not going to be home before sunset.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI know,\u201d I conceded.<\/p>\n \u201cYou know Bernoullis don\u2019t work in the dark, don\u2019t you?\u00a0 You\u2019re liable to fall right out of the sky.\u201d\u00a0 Jim wanted want me to stick around and share stories and drinks around the campfire with the other pilots, but I had to work in the morning.\u00a0 So I took off.<\/p>\n And it was a beautiful flight home, as in the case of most night flights flown on nights of clear weather.\u00a0 The moon was out and the stars helped show me the way home.\u00a0 The Continental C-145 up underneath the cowling steadily droned on, not missing a beat.\u00a0 But in the back of my mind, across all the years, distance flown, and flight time, I could still hear the old man\u2019s admonition.<\/p>\n \u201cIf that engine quits, you\u2019re gonna wish you had a parachute.\u201d<\/p>\n -30-<\/p>\n \u00a9 2010 J. Clark<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cYou want to fly at night?\u00a0 Well, you just go over to Tampa International or somewhere else to fly at night.\u00a0 I don\u2019t let my airplanes fly at night.\u201d\u00a0 Charlie looks at me like I have lost my mind.\u00a0 \u201cBut … Continue reading