Night vision: a pilot's first logged night flight in more than 15 years put him too low and too far from the runway.(ACCIDENT PROBE)

There's no question flying after the sun goes down is different. Many of the things we take for granted in the daylight--the scenery, the speed sensation, better terrain avoidance to name but three--simply aren't available. The same airports we fly to and from in the daytime look ... different. Ramps bathed partly in darkness and partly in yellowish or bluish glows appear cleaner, perhaps, more antiseptic. The runways and taxiways, too, take on a different appearance, hidden between rows of blue and white jewels.

Some of my most memorable flights--for all the right reasons--have been at night: Manhattan, fireworks displays, live-fire exercises in the restricted area I flew past. Too, the airways, frequencies and approaches are not as busy. For this reason, plus competing schedules, most of my Instrument rating was earned at night. All flying is to share the sky's beauty; night flying is better.

But, while night flying offers more of many of the things we aviators often seek, it offers much less of some of the things we need to fly safely. Chief among them, of course, is that everything is no longer illuminated by the sun. But with that loss comes another one, even …