Flight At Night (082202)


Tonight (well depends on when you are reading this... :-)), I did some night flying at PAO. :-) I was originally going to jump on over to SJC, but the 2000' few and then later on 1800' few above SJC made me think twice... So I decided I'd stay in the pattern at PAO instead... :-) I got there about 7:45-8:00pm... preflighted the plane in what lingering light there was left... finally started the engine at about 8:35pm... taxiied to the fuel island and topped up the wings (personal minimum... :-) always, if possible with the weight/balance, take off with full fuel. :-))... after taking 10-15 minutes to fill up the tanks, asked ground to taxi to 31 for a right closed pattern...

Turned out quite a few other people had the same idea to do the pattern that evening. :-) before tower closed, we had about 3-4 total planes in the pattern. :-) This continued for the next hour or so... (I flew about 1.4hrs)... up until the very end where there was one Citabria and me... then the Citabria left... :-) I was about to go around the pattern one more time before I saw the moon getting covered up by clouds (I decided that was my cue to quit while I was ahead... :-)).

All in all pretty neat experience... :-) 7-9 times around the pattern at night... with a full complement of other planes doing the exact same thing (along with a Lifeguard helicopter from Stanford)... busier than a usual day pattern for me... :-) (there was a time when 3 of use were lined up behind the hold short line waiting to take off for the pattern with a plane on short final and another one coming right behind it from base->final... :-)).

I must do this again sometime... :-) But maybe next time head over to SJC and do the pattern there instead. :-) Never thought doing pattern work could be so much fun... :-)

Michael.

PS. The one thing I remember from this evening was when I was turning crosswind to downwind, 733KK announced he was turning to downwind... I immediately started looking for him, at the same time slowing down quite a bit... then I asked him over CTAF where he was, and he said he was right downwind turning final (I know, there is a base missing in there somewhere... :-))... Important lesson... don't say you are turning downwind if you have already been there for 3/4 of the pattern... :-) It's okay to have missed a call in between... but giving a delayed called with delayed information can scare the dickens out of the other plane. :-)

Last updated: 082502