Cross Country

Alone, the prospect of a cross country to Potchefstroom, Rustenburg and Wonderboom is appealing - but getting the chance to fly at night is mouth watering.

If you get such an opportunity, the follow pointers should be taken into consideration: (developed and revised through experience)

• Very High Frequency Omni Directional Radio Range Beacons (more affectionatley known as VORs) are your friends, take the time to culculate their spiky little radials. Do NOT deviate.
  
• Pencils and other useful stationery will surreptitiously loose themselves underneath the seats. They will not want to be found until the yoke is pulled into a 45 degree angle of bank and your cheek is somewhere by your knee.
• 'Restricted Airspace' is, in fact, restricted.
• Not all lights in straight lines mark runways.
• Anticipate being in the air for a long time and never drink too much before departure.
• Johannesburg Information has eyes everywhere.
• 030 degrees is not the same as 300 degrees on the directional indicator.
  

Avoiding these few... lapses in accuracy... usually results in a fair enough flight. Another thing worth noting is the elusiveness of Rustenburg. The runway is marked by scarce, spread-out lights. From the air it looks rather tragic - rather small and missing a few bulbs.

Circuits at Lanseria

'Nighttime', if you need to be technical, is 15 minutes after the sun has set - in aviation terms, anyway. This twilight is an ideal time to do a preflight (not to be confused with the high time for Hollywood vampires). While doing a mandatory day time preflight, it is easy to become complacent when checking the navigation and landing lights - their importance only becomes realised when they're needed to avoid reshaping the wingtips of other parked aircraft at night. Wingtips are curious creatures - subtly camouflaged and hidden... till hit.

A useful piece of information: taxi in between the blue lights. An even more useful piece of information: each light is made of porcelain and designed to break if hit. They're worth a couple of thousand rand each.

Its rather irritating that Lanseria doesn't have ground control after 17:00 UCT. They make a comfortable transition from Ground to Tower and are usually less frightening to talk to, but the protocol is to contact Tower directly.
"Papa Mike Kilo is a Charlie One Seven Two with... er... standby for fuel..."
Traffic control endure antagonising and off-frequency cursing, perhaps unfairly - managing hundreds of aircraft and preventing almost certain collision must invoke some mild form of insanity. This insanity would be furthered with each pilot's rendition of aviation jargon, for example the cheeky: Oscar, Popcorn, Quebec... or the obscene: runway zero sex left.

The runway isn't too obvious while taxiing. It's easier to have faith in the luminous yellow line leading the way (does that echo The Yellow Brick Road?). However, once those runway lights ellipse, suddenly revealing two parallel edges, the runway is a dangerously inviting path. Ailerons into wind, transponder on 'altitude', check landing light and align directional indicator.
"Papa Mike Kilo cleared for takeoff runway two four right..."

Its not that its 'dark' as such, there are certainly things to see. Like residential lights or the illuminated tips of enticing spires - like angler fish in murky water. The dark doesn't discriminate - the glow of shanty towns is just as attractive as the neon message of Sandton. Monte Casino's beacon, the conspicuous 'Absa-balloon', has been changed into a soccer ball in twenty-ten festivity. All these features of a Johannesburg night are markers for straight and level flight. They become familiar in circuit training, even anticipated and celebrated with each loop around the airport.

Yet, the most appreciated set of lights must be the PAPIs. To be guided down to the runway at the correct height alleviates huge pressure, it's enough to remember to put back the 'carb heat' on Final Approach - decorating the belly of the aircraft with telephone poles is not high on the important-things-to-do-while-on-Final-Approach-list.