As part of my Pacific tour in DC-3 I decided to cross Gulf of California at night: MMSD 
MMPR
I thought that flying over the ocean wouldn’t see much, so it would be fine to fly at night. The problem was that I really didn’t see anything. I departed VOR SJD R120. After some time I lost the signal, but then I picked up VOR PVR and continued towards it. So I had direction, but I didn’t have distance. I was hoping to see some lights of islands 50nm off coast. That would be signal to start descend. Also I was hoping to pick signal VOR TNY that I could use to triangulate my position. Unfortunately I’ve never seen any lights and haven’t picked TNY signal. And I even forgot to note my departing time, so I couldn’t calculate more precisely, where I was. Until the VOR indicator started to turn and I knew I was almost above it. But I was still at 9500 ft. So I descended in 360 spiral. Then I saw Puerto Vallarta on my left. I received clearance to approach 04 straight. Landing was smooth, but then I didn’t know, where to park. It was so dark. I think I even ran over some parked aircraft. That’s one reason I don’t do much flying at night. Some airports are too dark.
Also lesson learned: I forgot to check phase of the moon. There was no moon light tonight.
10 Likes