Low IFR landing at night 

Pro tip: turn off your strobes when shooting an approach in the soup at night.

Low IFR, single engine, at night , never in a million years would I attempt to do this. Risky stuff , especially with the family onboard!

Great video . Still remember my first ILS to minimums , awesome feeling . Thx for posting

Your channel popped into my feed for the first time. Excellent, excellent video. Well flown. I'm working on my IRA, and these videos are inspiring.

amazing the confidence of your kid in the back!! great video!!

Wow, that was fantastic! Great job. Really enjoyed watching that. You have a really nice glass cockpit. I'd hate to have to do that approach on steam gauges! Well done!

Great video. That is the professionalism I aspire to have in my flying.

That, my friend is how it's done!! You captured the video of the approach so well!! Bravo! I'd fly with you anytime!

Also a good video to discuss aeronautical decision making. Very nice approach. Question would be how much additional risk is assumed by proceeding with an IFR landing, at night , single engine, to minimums, with family in tow. A lot higher than clear skies. Sounds like there was a nice restaurant nearby with better landing conditions that your wife suggested you visit. Was that the better option? If you do this repeatedly, the odds begin to stack up and bad outcomes become more and more likely.

what a beautiful landscape !!! new follower!

Beautiful approach! Wee bit jelly!

That was low. Glad to see another part 91 non-pro operator that maintains that level of proficiency.

Superb approach! Reducing visibility over all the alternate airfields, family on board! You did extremely well, great job!😅😊

Greatest IFR approach yet and I’m looking forward for more and your A-36 is very well equipped and as well right at minimums and single engine at night was extremely well flown

Love the videos!

WOW! That was some great IFR flying! It was scary though and risky, but that's what IFR is for.

Impressive stuff, great IFR proficiency... But if I was flying a minimums approach with my wife and kiddos in a single engine piston I'd be a ball of nerves...

Nice! Hoping to fly into Brandywine soon to visit the Helicopter museum.

Awesome job!

New panel since the last vid I’ve seen. Nice. Enjoyed experiencing the approach vicariously. Did replicate it on a Sim

Absolutely magical

Such a cool video!

No better feeling getting lights at mins! Great Job!

Nice approach!

Enjoy the flights and vids, thanks

Very nice landing, your wife looked excited. She had that fire in her eyes during the landing.

Spectacular video….

Long time, no video. That was a good one! (Just checked. Missed the one from a month ago. Will watch.)

Approach lighting systems makes those landing possible. Nice job.

Well done!

Marvellous 👍👋👋👋

Incredible ... 🛩🛩

What a MAGIC moment !

Awesome approach and great job! Not to nit pick but turn off the strobes while IMC at night

Great flight, doesn't get much more hardcore than that in a single piston.

Hey great video man. I agree with the people turning off the strobes would help and is allowed. But otherwise solid landing. Beautiful plane too!

Good Job!!!!

My first time watching on V tales Aviation

Please think about installing shoulder harnesses.

Great job but I’d recommend turning off landing light when imc on a low vis night. Best regards.

Sweaty palms territory right there! Ain’t no way in hell my Cessna’s getting me through that! You have a very nicely-equipped Bonanza!

Just found your channel, watched one video and immediately subscribed! Great job..thank you… Beautiful plane and very proficient in the flying as well as filming department. Are you a professional pilot in the work life as well?

So cool.

Nice video. Good flying. 0% chance that was at or above minimums though 🤣

Phenomenal

Nicely done. Just a thought, If you turned off you landing light you would see farther in the soup instead of lighting all the moisture right in front of the plane. The runway environment would show up sooner. then turn the light on or just land without it.

God I wish my 172 had autopilot. I can take 10 mins of imc then I want out. lol

OMG, what happened to the runway lights? Johnny,: “Just kidding!” (twirling extension cord).

Nice approach. And beautiful airplane! Question about the conversation after landing. When she asked “was that really 400 feet” and you responded “400 feet above sea level,” what were you referring to? Are you referring to the ATIS? Because that’s AGL.

Interesting people are amazed by an approach to minimums. During my initial IFR training every approach was done to minimums. The trick is really to maintain proficiency.

nicely done. interesting to read comments on peoples' differing appetites for risk... this one isn't for me, esp with pax on board.

Love your videos! N861T

“The sandwich place” is Big G’s I’m assuming? Best sammich I’ve ever had

Wow. Cool video. Wouldn't it have been better to turn off the landing light on final?

Nice.

ALSO UR LANDING LIGHT - BLINDING

6:21 which city is that? amazing views btw.

You have balls of steel

I can't believe it. A flight video without constant crappy music in the background (or even worse, in the foreground)

Nicely equipped airplane to make a single pilot IFR approach.

When your wifes askes a pertinent question and you answer Oh Yah😅

What was your flight time? Google estimate is 8 hours 48 minutes for driving.

Pro tip: turn off your landing lights when in IMC. That stops blinding you.

Crazy decision making and risk analysis; with your wife and kid in there with you too., Wow

Just because you can doesn't mean you should. Night, IFR, single engine, to mins, family onboard. No offense man you're really stacking the odds against you. Go ugly early and divert. Be careful, and stay safe.

Yikes!!!! Gib my twin!!

im doing my ifr rating at the moment, and watching this i would litterally shit my pants

You do NOT have to have all those lights on shooting the approach. Make it easy on yourself. Well done.

Lots of people here talking about how prudent your aeronautical decisions were in this video. If you care to hear yet another perspective, here are my thoughts both as someone who's based in the Northeast owning a piston powered airplane, and as a Part 135 captain on a Gulfstream. Personally, I think there's no single correct answer here. There are risks within your control, and risks that aren't. The risks you can control come down to how proficient you are, how capable you are, and how capable the airplane is. Be wise enough not to get in over your head, or operate the airplane under a set of circumstances that exceeds it's level of capability. What's more of an issue are the risks you can't control. Like any other type of risk, they can be managed and mitigated to an extent, but they can't be eliminated. Despite having done it quite a bit in the past, now at the ripe old age of 32 with over a decade of professional flying under my belt, I won't fly a piston single in weather that low anymore. I'll paint you one picture that will explain my reasoning clearly. Let's say you were shooting this exact approach in the exact same conditions again. But this time, the engine failed when you crossed the final approach fix. Its 200 and 1/2. You won't make the runway even on a clear day, but in this case, other than making sure it hits whatever it hits right side up, you have no control over where the airplane and the earth will meet. By the time you break out of the bases, there's no room to react to what's in front of you, much less see it. Especially at night. Doesn't matter if you're the best pilot on the planet, there's just nothing you can do. Hard IFR at night in a single engine turboprop? Maybe. Burning kerosene instead of avgas mitigates the risk quite a bit. But in a single engine recip? Not me. That's not to say you shouldn't do it. You just have to understand that flying this kind of airplane this way is really pushing the envelope by any standard. Can it do it? Sure. Can it do it with any margin? Not really. There are too many situations on nights like this one where a single point of failure results in a seriously, seriously bad set of circumstances. The question you have to ask yourself is, is it a risk worth taking? You look like a very capable and competent instrument pilot. If I were you, I'd say that you flying *that* airplane is a big fish in a small pond. Your level of comfort and capability exceeds that of the airplane. Maybe it's time to look into an airplane that can do the things your comfortable with and capable of doing, but with some more margin for error and the unforeseen. I'm based up at MGJ with a Cessna 414A, very similar avionics to yours. Take a ride up one day, lunch is on me.

Nice BUT, if Augusta was still available I would have gone into that. We all know why you made the decision you did but of course it is your final decision as PIC.

Leave her behind. That’s a lot of negative energy!

I would not try this even in flight sim.

Practice by becoming a donut club member

Don't listen to all the armchair pilots in the comments, you've been trained to fly to minimums and would have gone missed and elsewhere if you didn't see what you needed. You were bang on the centreline when you broke out. Great job!

Pro tip: don't fly low IMC at night in a very old single engine piston - Review decision-making process.

Single engine IFR Night. How damn stupid to risk your family’s life.

I strongly suggest you watch Mike Patey’s most recent speech. Just because you CAN and it’s legal doesn’t mean you should or it’s smart. And, as Dan Gryder says, PICK ONE. Not single engine, single pilot, night, terrain, hard imc. Smh. Unreal. Were you transporting a liver or something that absolutely had to get there as a matter of life and death? Get smarter.

way to jeopardize childrens' lives

Why do you leave the landing light and strobes on when in the clouds or fog? The glare coming back at you is blinding and an excellent way to give yourself vertigo while making it more difficult to see the approach lights. You should always turn the landing light and strobes off, then turn the landing light back on when you break out.

Nice approach!