"Doug" wrote in message
ups.com...
Go out 1/2 hour before it gets dark and start doing some touch and
goes. Gradually it will get darker and you will be landing at night.

There is night and there is DARK night. Most night flying has ground
lights and stars and maybe some moonlight. Truely a dark, dark night is
different and harder. Also an airport out away from town, lit only by
it's runway edge lights on a DARK nignt IS difficult to judge. So don't
start with the DARK night. Give yourself some city lights, some
moonlight etc and enjoy the view. Avoid mountains at night. Nice to
have a good heater too....

Another issue with night flying is haze. Here in the Southeast,
particularly in the summer, haze can severely limit your visibility. I've
been in situations where I was effectively IFR due to being over a sparsely
populated area in haze. The haze took away both the stars and enough
downward visibility that you couldn't see lights on the ground unless they
were right under you.

On one particular return trip from Osh, we ended up being IFR (I follow
roads) over I-24 and I-75 between Nashville and Atlanta. The interstates
were the only reliable references for visual flying. That flight was a
little spooky before we figured out the interstate thing.

KB