Night arrival at an airstrip that is not approved for night operations
You hold a CPL with night VFR privileges and fly a Part 135 VFR charter in a Cessna 206 from Madang (AYMD) to Kandrian, a coastal strip in West New Britain. The passenger boarded 55 minutes late and you are now off-blocks at 17:05; the flight is 1:20, giving an ETA of 18:25. Sunset at Kandrian is 18:06 and the end of civil twilight 18:28.
The AIP ERSA entry for Kandrian reads: no runway lighting, no instrument approach, night operations not available. Your operator's exposition lists Kandrian as day-VFR only, with arrival required no later than 15 minutes before sunset. Weather at Kandrian is SCT030, 10 km, fine. The aircraft has serviceable position lights, landing light and instrument lighting, and you have done three night landings in the last 90 days. The client says the logging company lands there at night using vehicle headlights on the strip.
1. May you depart? Work through each requirement.
Read the worked answer
You may not depart. Four tests apply, and the aerodrome fails the one that matters.
- Pilot: you hold night VFR privileges and are recent - satisfied.
- Aircraft: position lights, landing light and instrument lighting are serviceable - satisfied.
- Weather: SCT030 / 10 km is VMC - satisfied.
- Aerodrome: Kandrian is not available for night operations. No runway lighting, no approved lighting system, no approach, and the ERSA entry says so. Your operator's exposition goes further and requires arrival no later than 15 minutes before sunset.
Your ETA of 18:25 is 19 minutes after sunset and inside the exposition's prohibited band. Arriving there would be a night landing at an aerodrome not approved for it, and outside the terms under which the operator holds its certificate - exposing both you and the operator.
Vehicle headlights are not an approved aerodrome lighting system: they do not mark the strip, thresholds or slope, and nobody has assessed obstacle clearance for a night approach. That another operator does it is neither a defence nor evidence of approval.
2. What are your realistic options, and how do you choose between them?
Read the worked answer
In order of preference:
- Delay to the next morning. The clean, cheap answer: the strip is day-only and the passengers are going somewhere with no night capability.
- Reroute to a night-capable aerodrome. Fly them to Hoskins/Kimbe, which has runway lighting and published approaches, and let them complete the last leg by road or the next day. Do this only if you and the aircraft are legal for a night flight and the fuel and weather support it.
- Cancel and re-book. If the client accepts neither, the charter does not happen.
Do not treat the client's urgency as an emergency. The PIC's emergency authority exists for a genuine threat to life; a commercial schedule is not one, and landing unlit at night would create a bigger threat than it solves. Even a real medical emergency would be answered by flying to a lit aerodrome with an approach, not by attempting an unlit strip in the dark.
Whichever option you take, record the decision and the reasons, and tell the client and operations now rather than after the fact.
3. The client offers a signed indemnity and says everyone does it. Does that change anything?
Read the worked answer
No. An indemnity is an agreement between private parties; it cannot authorise a breach of the Civil Aviation Rules, and it does not bind CASA PNG.
- The obligation to operate within the rules sits with the pilot in command and the operator. The exposition is part of the operator's certificate, so departing outside it breaches the conditions of the certificate, not merely a commercial risk appetite.
- A passenger's waiver is unlikely to survive a claim by an injured third party, and the insurer may decline cover for an operation conducted outside approved limitations - the worst outcome for everyone.
- Enforcement risk includes action against your licence personally, and you would be the one in the left seat at an unlit strip at night.
- 'Everyone does it' is not a defence. Customary practice is not a permission, and a widespread unsafe practice is precisely why the rule exists.
If the client wants night access, the formal route is for the aerodrome operator to seek approval and install lighting, and for the operator's exposition to be amended. That is a project for next year, not for tonight's departure.