Night Cross Country

I have been excited about this flight for a couple of weeks. The thought of flying at night is intriguing to me and I was incredibly awestruck by how different everything looks! We went down to Tucson International (KTUS).

This was also my first time requesting flight following. This was useful since KTUS is located in Class C airspace. When the approach controller handed us off to the tower, it was very difficult to see the runway. The tower then informed us that they were having problems with the runway lights. They had been out and after some work, they were able to get them to the dim setting. Anyhow, this was not the end of the world...

We landed in Tucson; however, since the runway lights had been out prior to our arrival, there were about 5 heavies in a hold southeast of the airport. We had to wait for all of these planes to come in. This took a bit more time that we had hoped. Part of the night qualification is to perform 10 takeoffs and landings to a full stop. This was still on the agenda for tonight and we really wanted to get back to Falcon Field to do this.

After they brought in all of the heavies, we were cleared to takeoff back to Mesa. It seemed like a long time but that is likely due to the fact that I was the one paying for all of the gas while we were sitting there waiting to go home. The landings and takeoffs back at Falcon Field went well. The depth perception is a little off at night and on the first couple of landings it seemed like we were higher than we actually were. Made for some "firm" landings. Still a lot of fun and the Phoenix and Tucson skylines are beautiful at night.

Flight time: 3.0

Total time: 60.7