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Are you comfortable flying a T18 at night? (VFR)
Poll ended at Sun Mar 03, 2019 3:41 pm
I fly the T18 at night often and am totally comfortable. 8%  8%  [ 1 ]
I occasionally land the T18 at night, but I am comfortable with it. 50%  50%  [ 6 ]
Landing a T18 at night makes me nervous. 17%  17%  [ 2 ]
The thought landing a T18 at night makes me incontinent. 25%  25%  [ 3 ]
Total votes : 12
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dickwolff
 Post subject: Night OPS
PostPosted: Sun Feb 24, 2019 3:41 pm 
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I’m thinking recommissioning the landing lights on GABY. I’m curious where others stand on night flying in the Thorp.


Last edited by dickwolff on Sun Feb 24, 2019 4:08 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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stevehawley
 Post subject: Re: Night OPS
PostPosted: Sun Feb 24, 2019 3:52 pm 
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Location: USA
Used to fly at night quite a bit but my night vision isn’t what it used to be.
Steve Hawley


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Ryan Allen
 Post subject: Re: Night OPS
PostPosted: Sun Feb 24, 2019 6:09 pm 
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I cant think of anything different about flying or landing the T18 at night as compared to any other airplane.


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DrDrift
 Post subject: Re: Night OPS
PostPosted: Mon Feb 25, 2019 1:16 am 
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Landing at night isn't a problem, in general. My home field is a 3000 foot grass strip in a rural area. We have decent edge and end lights, but it still is a bit exciting trying to touchdown gracefully into a dimly lit black hole.

I have two landing lights, one narrow and the other wide. The narrow helps gauge altitude during the final approach, and the wide keeps the ground lit throughout the flare.


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Ryan Allen
 Post subject: Re: Night OPS
PostPosted: Mon Feb 25, 2019 7:45 am 
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I have been wanting to install the baja squadron pro's that everyone over on VAF says is so good, but at $300, I just cant bring myself to crack open my wallet. I have a couple of small landing lights inside my cowl inlets. They are just fine, but not a flood of lights by any means.


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Jeff J
 Post subject: Re: Night OPS
PostPosted: Mon Feb 25, 2019 5:10 pm 
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I seldom fly at night but I do get caught out after dark on occasion and I like to get night current about once a year. The only thing That bothers me about landing my Thorp at night is the way the landing light on the cowl reflects off the back side of the wood prop I have. It pretty much kills my night vision but I see less without it on.

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O-320-B3B (160 HP)
68x74 Sterba Propeller

"The joke in aviation is, 'If you want to make a million, you'd better start with £10m.' " -Bruce Dickinson


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Rich Brazell
 Post subject: Re: Night OPS
PostPosted: Tue Feb 26, 2019 10:10 pm 
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By the time the sun goes down my head is usually hitting the pillow . I use my LED landing light for recognition in high traffic areas like SOCAL . ::)

RB O0


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jtwigg
 Post subject: Re: Night OPS
PostPosted: Wed Feb 27, 2019 11:56 pm 
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This is a cool survey. I like option 4, haha. My Thorp has no landing or interior lights, so not an option for me.

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John Twigg N12055 SN.79 Pittsburgh, PA (KFWQ)


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Jeff J
 Post subject: Re: Night OPS
PostPosted: Thu Feb 28, 2019 8:47 am 
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Location: eastern OK
We practice engine out and no flap landings. Unless a person never flies at night, I think it’s a good idea to land at night without lights occasionally. I believe the most common failures in aircraft are electrical. I know that has been my experience (although oddest failure I experienced was a manual flap system failure when the link between the button and the locking pawl let go).

For our purposes, the only required lights at night are nav lights and strobes/beacon. I am typing on a light I can and have used to check instruments with although it isn’t my first choice.

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Thorp T18
O-320-B3B (160 HP)
68x74 Sterba Propeller

"The joke in aviation is, 'If you want to make a million, you'd better start with £10m.' " -Bruce Dickinson


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Binder
 Post subject: Re: Night OPS
PostPosted: Sun Mar 31, 2019 3:28 pm 
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I have no landing light. I fly at night with it. I can't say I'm 100% comfortable but the night part iwthout lights isn't the issue. My biggest issues is not being able to see the wind sock with my fly over. That's my only confidence issue. Most small fields I land at do not have weather info so I'm coming blind into the wind situation


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Ryan Allen
 Post subject: Re: Night OPS
PostPosted: Sun Mar 31, 2019 4:31 pm 
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Ryan Allen wrote:
I have been wanting to install the baja squadron pro's that everyone over on VAF says is so good, but at $300, I just cant bring myself to crack open my wallet. I have a couple of small landing lights inside my cowl inlets. They are just fine, but not a flood of lights by any means.


I just broke down and installed 2 baja squadron pros.....now I gotta go fly at night to test out these suckers.


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Fraser MacPhee
 Post subject: Re: Night OPS
PostPosted: Mon Apr 01, 2019 8:53 am 
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I installed this light a year ago - one bolt to the baffling just just inside the port air intake. It does a nice job. I then went to Checker air parts and bought a red $19 LED adhesive strip and installed it just ahead of the roll bar out of direct line of sight. It lights up the panel well.

https://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinf ... ight/1782/

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N926WM
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Ryan Allen
 Post subject: Re: Night OPS
PostPosted: Wed Apr 03, 2019 9:22 pm 
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Ryan Allen wrote:
Ryan Allen wrote:
I have been wanting to install the baja squadron pro's that everyone over on VAF says is so good, but at $300, I just cant bring myself to crack open my wallet. I have a couple of small landing lights inside my cowl inlets. They are just fine, but not a flood of lights by any means.


I just broke down and installed 2 baja squadron pros.....now I gotta go fly at night to test out these suckers.


I just flew at night with my baja squadron pro lights ( 2 of them). They are awesome.


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Savalas
 Post subject: Re: Night OPS
PostPosted: Sun Jun 21, 2020 8:46 pm 
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Joined: Wed May 20, 2020 8:37 am
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Where and how did you mount your baja lights? Any pics?


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