"John Clonts" wrote in
oups.com:

But a nighttime scenario might be pretty dicey trying
to manage the flashlight(s) and handheld gps. A passenger could help
for that though.

If you're going to fly IFR at night, you need to give some thought to
your setup. The passenger doesn't automatically know what you want to
look at. I use a cheap LED headlight I bought at WalMart, which comes
with white and red LEDs. I changed the red LED to green, because red is
problematic with many colors, and with the LCD computer we use. The
white instrument lights have already done away with my night vision
anyway, but the green doesn't distract my copilot as much, and lets me
see enough. I used to use a liplight, a green LED mounted on my
microphone, but have abandoned it for the headlight. It's usually turned
off, but if I need it, it's ready to go, and always illuminates what I
look at. I use it for starting, etc, before the instrument lights start
working, and for doing paperwork, etc. I fly almost exclusively at
night, and that has made me think a lot about how to organize and
illuminate things. We have separate electrical busses, two engines, etc,
so I don't worry that much about electrical failure. In a piston single,
it's much, much more likely, and the pilot needs to be prepared for it.

--
Regards,

Stan

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." B. Franklin