Avanti Night Flight

Club Night Fly event on July 15, 2023.
Avanti S 80mm EDF Jet
Video by Mike Monger. (His iPhone picked up more light than was visible to the human eye. The sky to the west was not nearly as bright as seen in the video.)
This flight was my first time flying this late after sunset. The navigation lights and strobe looked like they were sufficient for flying in complete darkness. That may be true, if you are flying only in the landing pattern. They are NOT sufficient for aerobatics!

[@worrabd]

You did a good job there Greg, especially considering we had the Canadian wildfire smoke that day too.

[@rcnfo1197]

Thanks. We had a thunderstorm come through just before sunset that cleared the air (and soaked the runway!), but just after sunset fog settled in. Some of the guys were joking I needed an IFR clearance to keep flying. The fog was mostly gone, though, by this flight.

[@ricardopr54]

Good job👍🏾😁

[@rcnfo1197]

Thanks! Not a good landing, but I was happy to get it back in one piece.

[@txkflier]

That was scary..

[@rcnfo1197]

It was! These jets are hard enough to see in the day. At night the lights really show well, which gave me enough confidence to try some aerobatics. Boy was I wrong! It needs a good tail light and landing lights. But no more night aerobatics for me!

[@txkflier]

@@rcnfo1197 Yeah, they’re too fast for those little LED’s. I can fly mine after sunset, but not more than 30 minutes after sunset.