| Heli-Skiing in Canada or spectacular | | | | Bottom line, high altitude training is |
| tours in New Zealand, mountain flying in | | | | essential for your career as a pilot. |
| a helicopter is one of the most | | | | Keep this in mind when choosing your |
| thrilling experiences you can have. | | | | flight school. |
| Safe mountain operations require not | | | | Flight operations don't stop when the |
| only good flying skills but also | | | | sun goes down. |
| experience and knowledge. It is quite | | | | Night flight training is part of your |
| different from flying at low altitude | | | | pilot training program and includes both |
| and over flatland. | | | | flight and ground lessons. |
| For one thing aircraft performance is | | | | In about the 20th hour of your course |
| decreasing with altitude. The air | | | | you'll do your first night flight and |
| becomes less dense making it harder for | | | | you'll be at the controls to experience |
| the engine to breathe while the | | | | the city in a way you could never |
| helicopter's main and tail rotor blades | | | | imagine. |
| haveless grip in the air. | | | | 1. DEFINITION |
| Then there is the weather factor. Each | | | | In aviation, night is the time between |
| area in the mountains has its own local | | | | the end of evening civil twilight and |
| climate making it more difficult to | | | | the beginning of morning civil twilight. |
| predict weather conditions for a given | | | | Civil twilight ends in the evening when |
| time. When flying over rugged terrain | | | | the centre of the sun's disk is 6 |
| you will have to deal with turbulenceand | | | | degrees below the horizon and begins in |
| downdrafts, changing visibility and | | | | the morning when the centre of the sun's |
| temperatures. | | | | disk has again the same position. |
| Visibility for example can change within | | | | How can you find out for your area? It's |
| minutes from clear to almost zero. At | | | | easy. Just look it up in the American |
| one time we landed on a mountain peak | | | | Air Almanac. Pilots can get this |
| near Palm Springs, California. The | | | | information also from their local Flight |
| landing area was not too confined and | | | | Service Station (FSS). |
| the student had no problem touching | | | | 2. REGULATIONS |
| down. As we got ready again for lift | | | | In America you don't need an additional |
| off, visibility dropped rapidly. | | | | night flight rating to be able to fly at |
| Winter operation is another aspect. The | | | | night. All you need is a current medical |
| snow must support the helicopter's | | | | and a valid pilot certificate without |
| weight while blowing snow caused by the | | | | restrictions. |
| rotor downwash can make a save landing | | | | If you want to carry passengers at |
| impossible. Start up on an icy or | | | | night, you must have made at least 3 |
| slippery surface is another story. | | | | takeoffs and 3 landings within the |
| Flying wise we can forget the height | | | | preceding 90 days during the period |
| velocity chart. The safest place for a | | | | beginning one hour after sunset and |
| landing in the mountains was probably | | | | ending one hour before sunrise. |
| the one we just lifted off. Make shallow | | | | The required landings must have been to |
| approaches with no flare at the end. If | | | | a full stop and in the same category, |
| you can hover out of ground effect | | | | class, and type of aircraft to be used. |
| you'll have enough power for a safe | | | | Night flights under VFR require also |
| landing. | | | | additional instruments and equipment |
| Proper flight planning is a must. Make | | | | such as an approved anticollision light |
| notes of powerlines and other obstacles | | | | system. |
| which are hard to see from the air and | | | | Flying at night over cities such as Los |
| do not forget to check your performance | | | | Angeles, San Francisco or New York is an |
| charts! | | | | experience you'll never forget. |