It was my second night flight lesson. I took off after nine with my instructor, because the daylight saving time has started and it doesn't get dark until this time in Vancouver. Our flight plan was CZBB - CYNJ - CBQ2 - CYCW and my instructor told me to divert to CYXX on the way. I made one critical mistake not in the air, but on the ground. I had been always drawing the course line with a red pen because it is conspicuous on the chart. Black is good, but I think red is better, because it doesn't hide any characters or symbols behind the line on the chart. However, at night, the red is the worst color because we use red light for night flight. Red color is said to be gentle to our eyes and therefore we usually use it for night flight. As you know, red line under red light equals to nothing. It was what happened for me tonight. Anyway, I felt that it is very hard to see the chart and the navigation log in the airplane at night. I thought it's more difficult to see the inside than the outside of the airplane.
I made the same mistake on my first night flying lessons more than 30 years ago. Don't feel like it was peculiar to you alone. I found for night flying it was good to use a highlighter in dark blue or purple.
Posted by: Frank | April 19, 2006 at 07:34 AM