After preflight we got the airplane started and taxied to the run up area. The inside of the cockpit was dimly lit but just enough to see everything I needed, and not obscure or screw up my night view. I do have to say, it is difficult to keep a balance of proper lighting in the cockpit. The map light on the yoke only had one setting. On and bright on. It did not dim. So when needed i would use that, but tried to limit the use of it. It takes on a new look at night as does the land, sky, traffic, and flight.
There was no one at the airport, so it was quick to get around, and get up in the air. Once cleared we got off the runway before the numbers. The airplane had a lot more performance!! You could feel the difference. It was a bit more of a IFR departure as i was concentrating on the instruments to keep up and on course. I could not see the mountains that i would normally see, so it was a little unnerving. The city took on a beautiful new glow. Filled with twinkles, hope, and uncertainly.
Mike and I started to talk about emergency landings, and asked would i rather land where the lights are, or in the dark? I choose the lights. As i can kinda see whats there, and there is something there. Better than landing into just nothing. Not knowing what's there. Because you cant see mountains. It just blackness. The same with fields and flat land. I would rather stay away from the darkness. I would rather not crash into the mountains. Mike said he agrees. Granted you know there may be a field down there. But do you know where the power lines are? Poles, Trees, Buildings? No. Not in the dark.
We got up to 4500', got the ATIS from KCMA, and once we tuned into KCMA tower we were informed that KCMA was now IFR conditions. CRAP!!! Its a good thing i already looked at the conditions at El Monte, because i sort of expected something like this to happen. So i already knew that KEMT was clear and clear until 12 midnight local. Here is my first diversion. I initialed a turn towards KEMT, and climbed up to 5,500. This will keep me above Burbank and any other airspace, except for LAX, but we were well away from LAX's airspace.
On the fly i had to get frequencies, Pattern Altitude, weather, look in the AFD, for lighting info. It took a little work but i was able to get it all done. It was a good crash course on diversions. Although this was a simple diversion. We have made this flight a hundred times. Just not at night.
On our way we discussed a few things. Started to plan for our way into El Monte. Since we were going over Burbank we would need to chop and drop at the outer shelf of Burbank's airspace to make it into El Monte. We were at 5500' and needed to be at 1300'.
Airports are also very difficult to see at night in all the lights. The only way you see them initially is with the green and white rotating beacon. If not for that you would pass the airport and not even know it. El Monte has directional runway lights. So unless you are at one of the ends of the runway you would not be able to see the runways. But once you hit a certain angle the airports lights up and it's easy to see the blue/green/red/white lights in the sea of white and yellow lights.
We contact CTAF and announce position and someone is already about to land. So they queued the lights before we got there. We begin our long final at the same time they were clear of the runway. We were about 5 miles north of the runway. So our announcement "El Monte Traffic, Skyhawk 88 niner lima bravo, 5 to the north, turning long final, runway 19, el monte" was made on the turn to long final. The first one was long as i didn't see where the airport was until almost the last minute. The first landing was surprisingly perfect. Mike was impressed.
In our briefing, he mentioned i would probably come down hard, as it's difficult to judge your distance to the runway when it's dark and black. But i had no problems. Didn't come down hard. The little bit of landing lights helped me to judge the distance that we had between the runway and the bottom of the plane.
We came to a complete stop on the runway, as we were landing as if it was short field, then did a short field takeoff. (Since for night flight you must come to a complete stop for landing requirements.) First one was perfect. Then another, then another, then another. We did 5 of these and each of them were perfect. No comments from mike other than, "AWESOME landing dude". I stayed above the glide slope the entire time, but used that to my advantage for the short field landings. I would rather stay above glide slope and fly another circuit, than fly it to low, and bring our night of fun to a premature end thanks in part to a power line, or tree, or house.
After the fifth landing, Mike said he was happy with that and lets go back to Van Nuys. He wanted to keep some of the landings for the night cross country we need to do by requirements to get my license. But unannounced to me, Mike was going to make me have one of those bad landings. Where you can not judge the height of the plane above the runway.
We come back to Van Nuys, and Mike on the downwind leg says, "Your landing, and taxi lights just burned out. Bummer dude. Have fun landing". Ok. This should be interesting. The view of van nuys 16R at night takes it's own place in the book of beauty. Once i saw what the runway looks like, i fell in love. But back to the subject, the pattern was perfect. Descent was perfect. On glide slope. Over the numbers (I didn't see the numbers but it's the green lights on the runway) i round out and flare and think im only inches above the runway. We soon begin to fall further than i expected. We were probably 2 - 3 maybe 4 or 5 feet above the runway when i thought we were inches. The landing was safe, but hard. It proved a valuable point which is what mike wanted to get through to me. Even when you think your close. Your not. Be cautious and use the side lights on the runway to help set you down. Next is cross country to Montgomery field.
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