My examiner (who has close to 40,000 hours) gave me many pieces of advice
during my private checkride. The one he said would be hardest to follow was
to not fly at night until I was instrument rated or had an instrument rated
passenger on board. Many pilots (as you'll probably see from this newsgroup)
think that's being overly conservative and too restrictive but I was able to
follow that advice and still have over 60 of my 250 as night flight.

Reasons:
* Many times you will not see oncoming clouds at night until you're in it
* Haze--of the JFK Jr fame--is next to impossible to see at night
* Over bodies of water large enough to go over the horizon, it's as good as
IMC with no moon at night
* Also on a moonless night, sparsely populated areas are basically
feature-less except for some isolated lights. When these lights are on large
hills or mountains, they look awfully similar to stars.

I've experienced all of these at night so in retrospect (I've since acquired
my instrument rating) I can be thankful that I've chosen to follow it.

Marco Leon

"G. Burkhart" wrote in message
news:0joad.218088$MQ5.166822@attbi_s52...
A question to the group. Do you normally fly many night solo cross
country flights? I have been going out to the local airport every couple
months to do some night flying, but it's usually solo just around the
patch
to get night current so I can carry a passenger at night. The few times
that
I have done cross countries at night, I either have a passenger (usually
pilot rated too) or an instructor (during training a few years ago).

I was going to do a short night XC a couple weeks ago and took off,
got
about 10 miles out and didn't 'feel' right so I returned to the pattern.
It
was probably just me, but it seemed like some strange noises from the
plane
that I don't notice during day flight. If I have a passenger, I'm not as
concerned about flying XC at night. All of my night flights have been when
there is close to a full moon so visibility isn't a factor.

-Greg B.