Electric Twilight

Currency Flight

Date	Aircraft	Route of Flight	Time (hrs)	Total (hrs)
31 Aug 2025	N21481	SDC (Sodus, NY) - 5G0 (Le Roy, NY) - IUA (Canandaigua, NY) - 0G7 (Seneca Falls, NY) - FZY (Fulton, NY) - SDC	2.3	3039.6

Winter is coming and, with it, shorter days. I was inspired to take the Warrior back into the sky for a second time on August 31 to log enough night operations to extend currency into the truncated days ahead.

Fire off the departure end of runway 28.

Normally, takeoff and landing is dictated by wind direction. (At least in places like Sodus that are not Courchevel.) Because someone lit a massive fire off the departure end of runway 28 (rude!), I departed in the opposite direction to avoid flying through the smoke.

With the sun eclipsed behind the shoulder of the world, the horizon glowed crimson with residual scattered light, an electrical filament teased with minimal current. Turning southwest bound, I was struck by a reflection of that electric twilight on the wing.

I have two preferences for night currency flights. First, to reduce my risk of a deer strike, I do them anywhere but the Williamson Sodus Airport. If already flying elsewhere, I often choose to do a round robin flight to multiple airports that not only provide takeoffs and landings at night, but also exercise navigation and maneuvering in the darkness. That night, the first stop was my former home base in Le Roy, NY.

Despite a sky still aglow with twilight, nighttime enveloped the surface as shadows lengthened to consume all but the artificial stars twinkling below.

Quiet chatter from the Rochester Approach frequency murmured in my ears as I flew across the city. Though not illuminated itself, the Erie Canal was visible with reflected light against a darkened landscape.

Ahead, headlights from highway traffic marked a distinctive serpentine turn of I-90. Navigation at night is not so difficult, but the cues are different.

Soon enough, the red glow of the horizon subsided and I practiced nighttime operations at multiple airports. I flew from Sodus to Le Roy, Canandaigua, Seneca Falls (except the pilot controlled runway lighting failed while I was on downwind and could not be revived, so I aborted), Fulton, and back to Sodus in the darkness left behind when the electric twilight was finally dialed down to zero.