Definition
Night landings conducted with the airplane's landing light turned off, requiring the pilot to judge height, alignment, and touchdown using only ambient light sources such as runway lighting, moonlight, or other available illumination.
Plain English
Landing at night without using the airplane's own landing light, so the pilot has to rely on the runway lights and other available light to judge the touchdown.
Context Anchor
Encountered in night landing training and in discussions of what to do if the landing light fails.
Derivation
From 'blackout,' originally a wartime term meaning to extinguish or hide all lights to avoid detection. Here it carries the same idea -- the airplane's main light source is switched off, leaving the pilot to land in relative darkness.
Why Pilots Care
Builds the ability to land safely when lighting is lost, directly improving emergency preparedness and reducing risk during actual night flight electrical failures.
Grounding Statement
Picture approaching a runway at night where you can see the runway lights, but the pavement itself is not lit by your airplane.
Intuition Check
A blackout landing does not mean the pilot has blacked out or that the entire airport is without lights. Here, blackout means the airplane is landing without its own landing light showing the runway surface.
Example Sentence 1
During night training, the instructor had the student perform several blackout landings so they would be prepared if a landing light ever failed.
Example Sentence 2
Blackout landings are introduced after basic night pattern work so the pilot can safely handle a complete loss of lighting during an actual approach.