Racing the sun

So, a few weeks later, I decided to go out to my very first $100 hamburger with two of my friends.

Our destination was a Mexican restaurant at Altoona-Blair County Airport (AOO), a 40-minute hop from Frederick Municipal Airport (FDK) in Maryland with slight headwinds, but there was a beautiful clear sky.

I instructed my passengers to meet me at the airport at 10 a.m. Planning for an hour of morning chitchat, preflight, and runway hold short time, we’d be out of there by 11 a.m. for a timely lunch, and back home before night fell at 4:45 in the afternoon.

Things started going wrong immediately. One of my passengers overslept, and didn’t get to the airport until 11 a.m. Yet he insisted I wait for him to start the preflight. The preflight took longer than I anticipated as I found myself explaining every step of the process. When we were finished, we realized that another aircraft was blocking the ramp exit with the engine running. We had no choice but to wait.

With further delays holding short of Runway 23, we ended up taking off at 12:45, with four hours until sunset.

We landed around 1:45. I spent lunch vaguely anxious, looking at the time and urging my friends to be a little quick with their meal, expressing I did not want to fly home past sunset. Unfortunately, the restaurant itself took a while and my passengers were in no rush, telling me not to worry and it’d be fine. They trusted me! It was 3:30 when we finished our meal.

We took off at 4, but as my passengers delighted over the delicious lunch and the beautiful colors of the sky, I could not join in, anxiety growing as I raced against the setting sun.

I was not night current. The last time I’d flown at night was during my required night cross-country in 2018. But with a planned departure time of 11 a.m. I never considered that I might be in this position. I knew legally that I was in the clear. Night proficiency with passengers was only required an hour after sunset, and we would be landing right at the published sunset time.

However, the legal minimums are not enough to make a good pilot, and the low light environment of a sunset landing was a whole new experience. I tried to remember what I had learned about landings with low light, while keeping a close eye on my instruments and ATC communications.

   

WHAT HAPPENED

Preflight planning and setting personal minimums can keep you and your passengers safe.

It was a straight-in landing, so I did not have my usual landmarks for altitude and speed, I was stressed, I came in high, and without the depth perception, I flared high. I knew that I could get the airplane on the ground, but at that point I was more worried about scaring my passengers. I decided to go around, do a lap in the pattern, and take a breather.

My second attempt was significantly better, and with my usual reference points, muscle memory kicked in. It wasn’t my best landing, but it was a safe landing.

In hindsight I recognize if I had stayed firm and stuck to the timeline, I would not have added unnecessary risk to the flight. At the same time, I should not have waited until I had a night flight planned to practice night landings. Anything can happen on a cross-country. Especially in the winter with shortened days, staying past
nightfall is never an impossibility.

Capucine Cordina is a former assistant editor for AOPA. She is currently studying to be a CFI.