Small Aircraft; Low Wing; 1 Eng; Fixed Gear
Flight Crew Multiengine; Flight Crew Commercial; Flight Crew Flight Instructor; Flight Crew Instrument
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 156; Flight Crew Total 713; Flight Crew Type 129
Time Pressure; Situational Awareness; Distraction; Communication Breakdown; Workload
Conflict Ground Conflict; Critical; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural FAR; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
General None Reported / Taken
Environment - Non Weather Related; Human Factors
The runway incursion occurred when a new CFI and myself were doing a night flight for the said CFI to become night proficient again in small GA aircraft after not flying GA in a long time. ZZZ Tower had closed 30 minutes prior and we were the only aircraft working in the pattern. I said that we should practice a power off 180 when the incursion occurred. The situation that occurred was that Airport Operations was doing sweeps of the runway and either they did not announce they were on the runway or we did not hear them due to being focused on the power off 180 maneuver. As we turn from base to final and get closer to the runway; we did not see anything on the runway that would have warranted a go-around. As we start to line the aircraft up with the runway a few hundred feet above the ground we see on the very edge of the runway two sets of stationary lights that were on the edge that we initially mistook for runway edge lights; but by the time we were about to pass; we saw it was a vehicle. Being low to the ground; still in a bank; low energy; and with nothing in front of us I determined going-around was not the optimal decision to make since the vehicle was now behind us. After seeing it was a vehicle of some sort I initially believed that the sweeper had moved off into the grass; however the driver came over after we landed and said he was still on the runway. We landed 300 ft. past the vehicle to the best of my knowledge so there was no immediate concern for a collision.I believe that the situation would not have occurred had several things happened. A breakdown of communication had occurred in the chain of events between the aircraft and the Ground Operations in terms of knowing the position of where everyone was. We made a downwind call but did not make subsequent calls due to the high workload of the power off 180 maneuver. I cannot confirm if the ground vehicle did or did not make a call; but to the best of my knowledge they did not make the call saying they were on the runway.
Instructor Pilot reported that during night VFR approach; the runway was being swept by a truck while the tower closed and there was no indication that the runway was closed.