Late Night Flights

So last month my 6:30 PM flight became an 8:30 PM flight from Chicago to San Francisco.  It happens, the later in the day you are departing the greater the likelihood your flight will be delayed.  I try to avoid overnight flights, but late night arrivals are a part of my normal flying. I always find flying somewhat magical, I love the moment when the plane lifts from the runway and starts to climb, when it levels off and throttles back at altitude, and when the landing gear catches the runway at landing. There a lot of pleasant associations with my father flying when I was a teenager.  But dad, never flew at night.  He was licensed to, he went out with an instructor and was cleared by the insurance company to fly at night, but he choose not to.  It was outside of his comfort level, he would fly into a rain storm, but not into the darkness.  I enjoy flying at night.

I like looking down and seeing the landscape lit up at night.  I am always amazed at the lights of the cities and at how much of this country has nothing lit up at night.  Seldon over land is the night free from streetlights, or headlights, but they get very sparse over the majority of the landscape.  I look down and I think, who lives there?  How to they live?  What do they do?  What are they doing?  Are they happy?

I get a lot of reading done at night on airplanes.  I have found that the best way for me to sleep on a plane, is for me to not to try to sleep on an airplane.  I read, listen to music and I drift off.  I wake, pull out the computer and work on a couple of pages of text, and I drift off again.  I still avoid overnight flights if I can, but since I quit trying to force myself to sleep on planes, I have found it easier to travel late at night or overnight.