VFR At Night - SAFELY

[Colonel]

A recent (and completely useless) TSB report on a fatal  VFR night flight
prompted me to write this.

To safely to fly VFR at night, you need 3 things:

1) to be able to fly by reference solely to instruments, without any
outside references (and be able to know WHEN to transition: JFK, jr), and

2) know safe altitudes (climb, cruise, descent, approach) so you
don't hit anything (Jim Croce, Herc at Alert)

3) know your dew point spread, which curiously people ignore.

It's really that simple.  Note that #1 and #2 look pretty much like IFR,
and that's because they are.

(3) is pretty simple, too.  Every 3C gives you 1000 feet of ceiling, so
if your dewpoint spread gets down below 6C, you could be in cloud
below 2000 AGL at your destination.

Know what your dewpoint spread is at your destination.  [u]Watch it
like a hawk.[/u]  The temperature naturally drops at night, more so without
any cloud cover to reflect it.  What you have to be wary of is a source
of moisture, like an onshore breeze or melting snow, that can RAISE
the dewpoint on you.  This can happen very fast, and an instrument rating
is no guarantee of success - it can go from VFR Wx to below IFR limits
very, very quickly.  Remember how many hundreds of times I have mentioned
that you need to learn how to hand-fly a 0/0 ILS?

I won't justify the incredibly lame and inadequate TSB report by discussing
it - it's beyond salvageable.  If you knew who was on the TSB, you would understand.

Fun Factâ„¢ that every pilot needs to know, that the TSB surely does not:

With no dewpoint spread - that is, the temperature and the dewpoint are the same -
you can sometimes either have 100% fog or 100% clear.

Free advice, worth precisely what you paid me for it, and you are likely going to
ignore it and kill yourself:

If there are any radar returns of precip, don't fly VFR at night, for a number of
reasons blindlingly apparent to an old 20th Century pilot.

[Liquid Charlie]

Dew point was such an important bit of information it's hard to believe one would not think about it. Along with local information such as bodies of water and rising ground the DEW point can pretty much tell you the wx without sequence info. Another trend for the new generation of pilot is not to match actual reported wx to the forecast. I guess the tech of today is so good at forecasting there  is no need to verify information.

[Colonel]

I haven't even mentioned hills.  Sometimes, they are important.

[Slick Goodlin]

Paying attention to dew point spread in spite of the forecast allowed me to save my old company a fortune in gas money.

[JW Scud]

If you knew who was running the TSB personally,
you would understand.

I thought that person was quite experienced.

[Colonel]

So was Charlie Manson, but I wouldn't want him on the TSB, either.

[Chuck Ellsworth]

The TSB is a political animal and thus suspect in its conclusions.

I wish I could move to California where at least the weather is good.

[Colonel]

Well, I figure if TC won't let me live in Canada any more, I might as
well move someplace where the Wx is nice.

[Liquid Charlie]

The accident investigation issues over the years in canada have been been politically influenced. I know someone who resigned there because of that and it was over the bullshit issued around the aero air crash. According to him the report was a total cover up. I have dealt with them directly and while most of the ground troops are ethical and upfront the people pulling the strings are not.

[Colonel]

I can only laugh when people tell me there is no politics in government.