AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2014 - 18

PROFICIENT PILOT

Silent night

BY BARRY SCHIFF

Sorry, I'm not going along on that flight

BARRY SCHIFF

has been an
active certificated
flight instructor
since he was
18 years old.

DURING A RECENT GATHERING of local pilots, some
were surprised to learn that I rarely fly cross-country at night in single-engine airplanes. This has not
always been the case. When I was younger and bolder,
I used to fly singles all over the mountains and deserts
of the Southwest at night without giving it a second
thought. Ignorance was bliss. But as I became older-
and hopefully wiser-the notion of an engine failure
at night created more concern. Single-engine, crosscountry flying at night became a risk I no longer am
willing to accept.
The seminal event that began to temper my
single-engine night flying occurred some years ago
when a good friend called to ask if I would give him a
flight review in his Bonanza that evening.
"Why tonight?" I asked. "How about tomorrow?"
"Well," he explained, embarrassed, "my currency
expires tonight, and I have a passenger flight tomorrow. Tonight is all I have."
Why not conduct a flight review at night, I thought.
Nothing says that it has to be done during the day. So
I agreed.
Toward the end of that night flight and as is my
custom, I pulled back the throttle and dutifully proclaimed, "Engine failure!"
My friend began the drill with poise and polish, as
if he had been waiting for the moment. He established
and held the airplane's best glide speed, simulated an
attempt to restart the engine, and continued looking
for a place to land. (We were beyond gliding distance
of any airport.)
"Hey, Barry," he announced with frustration, "I
have no idea where to put this thing. Do you have any
ideas?"
I had to admit that I didn't have a clue either. In
the meantime, the hands of the altimeter continued to
unwind toward the darkness below. I was reminded
of the humorous adage about turning on your landing
lights when about to make a forced landing at night and
then turning them off again if you don't like what you
see. It's not so funny, though, when it could be for real.
Discretion being the better part of valor, I advanced
the throttle and said, "Exercise over. Let's go back."
Driving home that night, I thought more about how
challenging it would be to cope with a total engine failure in a single at night. I asked myself, again, where
would we have landed tonight had the engine actually

18 | AOPA PILOT December 2014

failed? I honestly didn't know. Survival would have
rested more in the hands of fate than it would have
been the result of skill and cunning.
The likelihood of a total engine failure at any time
is obviously remote. The vast majority of pilots have
never had an engine failure, and likely never will.
The more experience we have without having had
an engine failure, however, the more reliant on the
engine we become. We tend to become isolated from
the suggestion of an engine failure, a form of complacency. The trouble is, engine failures do occur, and
should one happen to you, the probability of such an
event leaps from remotely possible to 100 percent. I've
had three, and that might explain why I am more sensitive to the thought of an engine failure than those
who have not had the pleasure. One of those was a
sudden, catastrophic failure caused by a thrown piston rod (thankfully during the day).
Most of us have been trained to assess the terrain
when making cross-country flights in single-engine
airplanes during daylight hours. We have been taught
to have some sense of where we would attempt to land
in the event of an engine failure. There is almost always
someplace to go, some area where it might be reasonable to attempt a forced landing.
Such training, however, is of little value at night
for the obvious reason that there might be no terrain
to see. Night flyers must be resigned to accept this
added risk.
So where should a pilot head in the event of sudden engine silence at night? Many suggest heading
for a dark area, the theory being that it is likely undeveloped and, therefore, reasonably and hopefully flat.
Others suggest attempting to land in a developed area
so that lights there might be used to avoid clobbering
manmade obstacles. An illuminated area might help
to make it possible to for a pilot to point his aircraft
in the least threatening direction.
Frankly, I prefer to avoid the possibility of having to make such consequential decisions, and I do
this by not flying at night. Does this mean that I am
critical of those who do fly cross-country in singleengine airplanes at night? Of course not. I just hope
that they forgive me for turning down their invitation
to go along.
AOPA
WEB

www.barryschiff.com

http://www.barryschiff.com

AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2014

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