Hey all!
So a couple of Saturdays ago my instructor and I decided it was time to do my IFR cross country. We left around 3pm and the weather was marginal. We flew down to Lewisburg, WV, then up to Elkins, over to Clarksburg, and then to Parkersburg and finally back to our home airport I18.
On return flight, weather was light rain and it was now dark. As we turned final the REILs (for the first time) seemed to caused me to become disoriented. I havn't had the necessity to ever turn them off in flight probably because I've never flown at night in rain.
The approach was perfect. At touch down my instructor quickly grabbed the controls but a moment too late. We had a pretty good bounce off of the nose gear. It wasn't tremendous but it was briefly a little scary. I had completely lost the runway.....I think due to temporary blindness from the REILs. That may sound completely absurd but I was at a loss. I'm not sure what would have happened if he wasn't in the plane with me. I learned a valuable lesson and will practice turning off those lights when on approach if they seem to bother me. I've never had a problem with night landing.
Has anyone else had anything like this happen to them?
I know it wasn't the fault of the landing light but I"m fairly certain it is the original and is quite dim. Can anyone guide me to a good recommendation for a new LED landing light for a 1965 Cherokee 180C.
While I'm at it, I noticed the outside thermometer is not operative. Can anyone guide me to a good replacement for it as well?
Thank you all for such an awesome forum.
So a couple of Saturdays ago my instructor and I decided it was time to do my IFR cross country. We left around 3pm and the weather was marginal. We flew down to Lewisburg, WV, then up to Elkins, over to Clarksburg, and then to Parkersburg and finally back to our home airport I18.
On return flight, weather was light rain and it was now dark. As we turned final the REILs (for the first time) seemed to caused me to become disoriented. I havn't had the necessity to ever turn them off in flight probably because I've never flown at night in rain.
The approach was perfect. At touch down my instructor quickly grabbed the controls but a moment too late. We had a pretty good bounce off of the nose gear. It wasn't tremendous but it was briefly a little scary. I had completely lost the runway.....I think due to temporary blindness from the REILs. That may sound completely absurd but I was at a loss. I'm not sure what would have happened if he wasn't in the plane with me. I learned a valuable lesson and will practice turning off those lights when on approach if they seem to bother me. I've never had a problem with night landing.
Has anyone else had anything like this happen to them?
I know it wasn't the fault of the landing light but I"m fairly certain it is the original and is quite dim. Can anyone guide me to a good recommendation for a new LED landing light for a 1965 Cherokee 180C.
While I'm at it, I noticed the outside thermometer is not operative. Can anyone guide me to a good replacement for it as well?
Thank you all for such an awesome forum.
