Finally after at least a month of preparation and several false starts I have achieved my first night flight. This was done down at our field at around 7 to 8:30 pm November 12. It was quite cold: -2 to + 2 C and I was flying with leather gloves. I used 8 solar/patio lanterns to mark/illuminate my path to the pits and the flight station and then the center line of the runway.
I started flying (again after 15 yrs departure) at a fun fly in June. Soon after, with the help of instructor Dave Holmes (thanks again Dave!) I achieved my wings with my 5 foot wingspan Piper Cub. As days grew shorter toward the end of the season, I thought adding lights to the plane would allow me to 'kind of' extend the season. In addition, my plane was a bit overpowered: good: to get out of trouble & off the ground quickly but bad: for landing; coming in fast and running out of runway ;) So in addition to lights, I added flaps. This all took time.
The hardest part was the lights. Running wires through the plane and mounting them meant cutting through the covering in numerous places. Then there was the endless soldering and gluing. This was combined with dark room testing of lights and visibility. The high powered Leds have limited viewing angles (5->20 degrees) and so if you hope to see them from many attitudes you have to bank them in groups, with each mounted at a slightly different angles. Although I purchased some reflective tape, I found that it was unusable since it requires a light source mounted perpendicular to it. So in the end I outfitted the plane with a number of 'spotlight' LEDs that illuminated the wing and fuselage. I also had a number of ‘marker’ LEDs that included: blue tail lights, yellow fuselage belly lights and top wing green/red indicators and finally 'headlights' or landing lights from inside the canopy and 2 on the top off the wing. So I began by test flying the plane in daylight with all the new lights and an independent battery pack and new flaps. I was able to slow the plane down a bit with the flaps and land it on the field every time. Unfortunately, I decided I was going to try a little acrobatics at this time (loops) and the first 2 or 3 went great but the last one, I forgot I had flaps on, and couldn't pull out on time.. and crashed. So, I was set back another week in repairs. Most damage was on the front of the fuselage where the engine had been ripped out, when it hit the ground and did 3 cartwheels.
A week or two later, I was back at the field with a new muffler and all lights ready to roll. The new muffler looked promising, but did not quiet things as hoped and had no pressure return feed. The result was that every time I got 15 feet off the ground it cut out. On the 3ird try, I broke part of the tail and was set back another week. Nevertheless I stayed into the cold dark evening, and with the wolves howling and dogs barking, I set the plane up on top of the shed at the field and viewed it from various angles and the far corners of the field to try to see if I would have enough LEDs to view/fly successfully.
Another week later, I was back at the field in the afternoon. This time the goal was to fly slow and in close to the field (like I would have to at night, if I was to keep the airplane in sight). Oh yes the secondary goal was to keep the plane in one piece this time, so I could fly it at night. I also found a better muffler with a pressure feed and had installed that. The flights went fine; mission accomplished. Later that evening I returned (in the dark). After some practice runs/taxiing up and down the field ( to gain a feel for what the plane looked like with its assortment of high powered LEDs) away she went…...up up and away blue tail lights (*4) and green and red starboard top wing lights. After rotating about 30 degrees to the south, the attitude/lighted vues changed to Fuselage/ underwing spotlight view and then I pulled it back overhead to have the spotlight view of the underwing and yellow lights down the belly (this is probably the strongest view).. but it really requires you to stand in the middle of the field and fly figure eights with you at the center. Try not to get dizzy.
The first landing was a bit fast ( I think I even had some flaps on) the field was used up quickly, and I had to plop her down a little hard (better where I can see/find it ;) I was thinking) .. result: broke another prop (3ird in 2 days!). First night repair coming up.
The head on view with headlights (at landing) had been quite cool and it was easy to keep the wings level. Not so easy to judge the speed and height. The headlights gave a cool white glow that illuminated the field below. After replacing the prop and refuelling, I did 2 more flights... it seemed to get easier. I don't think there was any cross wind and it was a perfect (if cold) starry night.
