I’m not exactly helping am I?

RTH is currently working on his night rating, seeing as we don’t get much in the way of night in the summer (tower shuts by 23:00) so far this has been limited to him getting the extra instrument time he needs.

Today though, he potentially has his first “night” flight, something I think he is approaching with a mixture of anticipation and apprehension that I know all too well. He started off by digging his red flash lights out of our telescope kit, one handheld and one head mounted (complete with obligatory Dalek impression). I started thinking about all the things that are going to be harder in the dark.

“taxiing’s going to be fun,” I commented “I hope you’re not on 08. I have enough trouble getting into that corner when it’s daylight!”

It was meant to be a flippant, throwaway comment but then I started thinking about ALL the things I do visually that are just that much harder in the dark.

·         How the hell do you fly a circuit? All my landmarks are visual.

·         How do you follow the shoreline to the practice area , it’s dark.

·         How icky must it be to practice stalls in the dark?

·         How do you spot cloud?

And so on. As I thought of the next “how the hell do you….” They just kept coming out of my mouth. Then I took a look at RTH and realised “ermm, I’m not helping much am I?”

He politely suggested that no I really wasn’t.

“I’ll just be quiet then shall I?”

We agreed that might be best!