I own the night...

Flight #: 56
CFI: Kristie H.
Aircraft: Robinson R22 Beta II
Aircraft ID: N2223P
Duration: 3.0hrs Night
Cumulative Time: 65.5.hrs

Last night was my first real night flight. Kristie actually took me out for a night-ish run into Portland as a "tour". But, I was really a passenger only, as that was my 2nd flight.

This was all me, and it was breathtaking. No other word for the experience. Not only am I flying a helicopter... I'm flying it at night, and looking at some fantastic scenery at the same time. Kristie had mentioned that night flying was cool, and the navigation was pretty simple when over populated areas... "you just follow roads".

And she was right. The image above is not mine, and it is not from this flight - it was just ripped from the web, but this is exactly what it looked like. Roads are very visible from the air. Street lights, yes... but the car lights are perfect. Red, they are going away from you. White, headed your direction. Kind of obvious, but it lets you know exactly what side of the road you are on.

Towns show up as pretty well defined clusters of light. Airports and other aircraft are very visible. Just a great experience.

There were three distinct parts to this journey:

Part 1: South - Hillsboro (KHIO) to Albany, OR (S12)
We left Hillsboro at 8:13pm (end of civil twilight), which when a night flight officially can start. Wind was calm and traffic was pretty light. We headed north to Rt. 26 and followed that East. I had completed a flight plan, and that had me flying all the way east to I-5, which we would then follow south to Albany, but, as we crossed 217 South Kristie diverted me down 217. Not a problem, they both meet up, and I knew that.

It was incredibly cool to follow the traffic like that. Roads were very visible and it was obvious where we were headed. I had chose to fly at 1500ft for the trip, mainly cause I thought it would have been easier to see features, lights, etc... but I could have been at 5000ft and not missed a thing. I stuck to 1500ft anyway. It was amazing what I could see... a few cops busting people for speeding, etc. No wonder they use aircraft to catch speeders... EASY, and and they never know you are there.

Radio communication as perfect this flight for me... no flubs at all.

As we passed Aurora (KUAO) we got to try out the pilot activated lighting system. This is feature of may airports that allows the pilot to tune to the common traffic frequency and then turn on/off/up/down the runway lights. All you have to do is to toggle your mic on/off.

3 clicks in 5 seconds = Lights on Low
5 clicks in 5 seconds = Lights on Medium
7 clicks in 5 seconds = Lights on High

It is pretty cool to flying along and then click you mic 7 times and have a runway appear out of nowhere. Chasing "rabbit" lights and all.

Did a few patterns on Albany on the way in. Night certainly messes with your depth perception, I came in too high for two approaches. Finally figured it out, but took me two go-arounds.



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Part 2: Refueling in Albany, OR (S12)

Don't know why I thought this was so cool, but I do. Self service helicopter refueling. Albany, shown here, has their own self-service fuel service.

You just follow the blue signs that say "Fuel" and land in front of the pump, shut down and head on over with your credit card.

It asks you to first ground the helicopter, then to verify the fuel type. Once you verify this, you enter the # of gallons you want, and you are off to the races. Pretty much the same as a standard gas pump, except you have a 75 foot hose to use.

When you are done with the fill-up, you press a button to retract the heavy spool of hose, hang up the nozzle, and then unhook the grounding wire. That's it. Simple, fast... and fun.









Part 3: North - Albany, OR (S12) to Portland Downtown Heliport (61J) to Hillsboro (KHIO)

The flight back was pretty uneventful. Straight and level for most of the flight, until we got to the edge of downtown Portland. You need a 3 hour night flight for your certification, and we would have made it back in about 2.6hrs... so Kristie diverted me to the downtown heliport. Flying over the city at night is about 50x more impressive than flying over towns. Plus Portland has the river and 5 bridges to look at.

The approach to the heliport is a little tricky as it is located on the roof of a paring garage. So, it's not like you have 2000ft to pick your spot. You have a 50ft circle you need to land in.

I came in too high... surprise, and we did a go around. It is a little different in downtown Portland, since you don't want to be over the river, and you want to avoid buildings and cranes. So, it took a little distance for us to get in the right setup again. But, I did, and we landed nicely.

Takeoff was also different. Kind of feels like you are jumping off a cliff... the heliport disappears from underneath you after about 2 seconds. So, we did a max-performance takeoff and headed back to Hillsboro.

Ride back was quiet and simple. Straight in to runway 20, and hover taxi over Alpha taxiway to parking. Very quiet at the airport... nobody home. We were the only ones there. It was 11:20 after all.


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Night flying is absolutely amazing. Coolest thing I've done in a helicopter to date.

Have to knock out another 1.2 hrs of ramp-solo flying soon. That is going to be boring after all the cool stuff in the past few flights.