Night flight

I know that a certain retired fighter pilot that I look up to says that flying at night is unnatural, but it was a clear night, the temperature was just right, there was no wind and the keys to the plane beckoned...

The setting sun's not getting away that easily.

But alas, it did. It set beyond the ridges west of the field where I dare not go after dark. Those ridges rise up sharply and quite high, and they're unlit. So I let the sun go and just took off to play around the area for a while.



I flew over town, and over the Lair, and then I just aimlessly drifted around, chasing cars on the roads and trying to pick out landmarks that I knew on the ground. The air was still, without a hint of breeze or turbulence. I climbed and practiced a few steep turns (a little different at night), then just sat back and took in all the lights below and the stars above. Finally I went back to the airport and shot a few practice landings just because I was having fun and didn't want to quit. The first landing was cause for a bit or comedy when I touched down, stopped, then reflexively asked for clearance to back-taxi for another take-off.

Tower, somewhat amused: "You want to back-taxi? The seventy-four hundred feet of runway ahead of you isn't long enough?"

Me, doing the face-palm: "Uh, yeah. On second thought, I can just go from here."

I'd have filmed a landing approach, but I'm just not slick enough to operate a camera and land a plane at the same time. Sorry.

Finally the military air traffic controller came up on the radio and let me know that it was their turn to use the runway and I had to either land and stay down or go away for a while. So I made a full-stop and headed back to the ramp. Too much fun. I have to do this more often.