Clouds at Night
Flying home from Charlottesville tonight I had an opportunity to reflect on the difficulty of spotting clouds at night - especially in hazy conditions like we had around here tonight. While flying along level at 5000 feet scanning my instrument panel, I noticed the outside was "different". I turned on the landing light and was greeted by a wall of gray. I had flown into a cloud and hadn't seen it coming. I happened to be in an area with few ground lights, the horizon was obscured by haze and there was a high overcast blotting out starlight.
I was flying IFR, but VFR conditions prevailed below my altitude despite the haze. Something to keep in mind while flying VFR at night.