Night arrival in the hills

[pelmet]

https://www.pilotworkshop.com/videos/scary-approach

A video of an arrival that got too close to the hills for comfort. My suggestion would be to plan on an overhead arrival at an unfamiliar location like this. And with being a C172 landing on a 5000 foot runway, I would plan on a steeper than normal approach. I fly a 172 at an airport with a 5000 foot runway with no PAPI/VASI or any precision approach. The countryside is flat but there are trees close-in on short final at one end. I suppose there is mention of a displaced threshold inthe CFS but it is a classic case of it being better to be a bit(with emphasis on a bit) high on approach. If one is very familiar with the location, it might be different although a higher level of caution is always a good idea on a night VFR approach. This video case is a bit different because the concern is the terrain further out on final as compared to trees displacing a threshold case I just mentioned. Either can make for a bad evening.

Getting familiar with the runway lights in the CFS can be useful as well. A couple of months ago I walked into the maintenance office of a flight school and there was a couple of tires on the floor that had been skidded right down to the point where there was a hole in each one about the size of a quarter. A Cessna had arrived a couple of nights earlier and aimed to land near what he thought was the threshold....except the runway lights don't start at the threshold but quite far down the runway which really is not that long. He soon saw the runway end approaching and fortunately, only needed a tow off the runway the next morning with his two flat tires.

[rookiepilot]

Way too low an approach for an unfamiliar night arrival. One can use the IFR approach even if VFR, will assure safe clearance from terrain.

[pelmet]

Way too low an approach for an unfamiliar night arrival. One can use the IFR approach even if VFR, will assure safe clearance from terrain.

Good point,

But many don't have an approach plate, don't know how to use one, aren't at an airport/runway with an approach, or have an aircraft capable of flying an instrument approach(or some sort of combination).

[rookiepilot]

Way too low an approach for an unfamiliar night arrival. One can use the IFR approach even if VFR, will assure safe clearance from terrain.

Good point,

But many don't have an approach plate, don't know how to use one, aren't at an airport/runway with an approach, or have an aircraft capable of flying an instrument approach(or some sort of combination).

Serious advice? I'd learn a few basics about an approach plate, if one is going to land at unfamiliar airports at night in hilly terrain, so one knows which way an approach, and a go around, are possible. Or approach way overhead as you suggest, and descend right over the field.

Doesn't need to be in the high mountains. Even the eastern areas of the US have loads of tricky little airports.

This is an extremely dangerous scenario and there have been fatal accidents exactly like those pilots just missed.

Even in perfect VFR conditions, I've accepted a vectors to final at night at a strange airport in the Carolinas.

No approach at all? In the US? (Where there are only a million approaches ) I'd be REAL hesitant about flying there at night for the first time. Actually I would say no.

[pelmet]

Way too low an approach for an unfamiliar night arrival. One can use the IFR approach even if VFR, will assure safe clearance from terrain.

Good point,

But many don't have an approach plate, don't know how to use one, aren't at an airport/runway with an approach, or have an aircraft capable of flying an instrument approach(or some sort of combination).

Serious advice? I'd learn a few basics about an approach plate, if one is going to land at unfamiliar airports at night in hilly terrain, so one knows which way an approach, and a go around, are possible. Or approach way overhead as you suggest, and descend right over the field.

Doesn't need to be in the high mountains. Even the eastern areas of the US have loads of tricky little airports.

This is an extremely dangerous scenario and there have been fatal accidents exactly like those pilots just missed.

Even in perfect VFR conditions, I've accepted a vectors to final at night at a strange airport in the Carolinas.

No approach at all? In the US? (Where there are only a million approaches ) I'd be REAL hesitant about flying there at night for the first time. Actually I would say no.

Your caution is appreciated and the advice is good for many locations. I appreciate your vectors to final idea but these guys had no problem getting onto final. I am more interested in discussing the non-IFR possibility due to no radar available at all. And if you get vectors to final, the controller will likely say maintain VFR and altitudes are at your discretion. Which doesn't help much.

But some people will go to other locations where this is not possible. Maybe it is for work, maybe some other important reason but they are going to go. or maybe they had to go to an unplanned airport for whatever reason and it is night time and therefore now too late to say no or study a non-existent approach plate.

There are plenty of airports in non-radar areas, like most of Canada geographically. I have been to several very hazardous airports at night with close-in terrain(landing lights illuminating terrain ahead on the downwind while circling) but was very familiar with them. It would be nice to get some real world experience here from people who do this stuff on a regular basis.

[photofly]

Check the phase of the moon before you go.

[pelmet]

Check the phase of the moon before you go.

That did actually make a big difference flying into artic airports in the mountains in terms of seeing hills. But I have seen similar as what these guys did on a bright full moon night over snow. The brightest night ever and the captain descended within a few hundred feet of terrain more than 15 miles back. Therefore, disregard the moon phase and fly similar as you would on a moonless night.

[Schooner69A]

One can always fall back on the "One in sixty" rule...