Who has a night rating?

As a VFR only pilot, I thought it pointless to get a night rating due to the
potential difficulties of encountering a "black hole" and not having the
skills to get back to safety. But our flight school encourages us to
experience the beauty of night flying on clear nights.

Just wondering, how many VFR only pilots have and USE a night rating?

Marc

Night rated for just over a year now and no regrets. Lots of fun and gives
a bit of a fudge factor for leaving early or arriving late.

Brendan

"Marc Lattoni" wrote in message
news:Kmw1c.128621$Hy3.30256@edtnps89...
As a VFR only pilot, I thought it pointless to get a night rating due to
the
potential difficulties of encountering a "black hole" and not having the
skills to get back to safety. But our flight school encourages us to
experience the beauty of night flying on clear nights.

Just wondering, how many VFR only pilots have and USE a night rating?

Marc

Marc Lattoni wrote:

Just wondering, how many VFR only pilots have and USE a night rating?

Well, the night rating comes as part of the PPC in the U.S.. I used to fly a
lot at night until I got married. Not lately, though. I don't hesitate to make
a night flight if necessary - the last one I made was returning from AOPA expo
back in October. I don't carry passengers, though, since I don't fly enough at
night to allow it under the U.S. regulations.

Flying VFR at night in the New York - Washington area is pretty easy, though.
It can get pretty nervous once you get away from the lights.

George Patterson
A diplomat is a person who can tell you to go to hell in such a way that
you look forward to the trip.

"Marc Lattoni" wrote in message
news:Kmw1c.128621$Hy3.30256@edtnps89...
As a VFR only pilot, I thought it pointless to get a night rating due to
the
potential difficulties of encountering a "black hole" and not having the
skills to get back to safety. But our flight school encourages us to
experience the beauty of night flying on clear nights.

Just wondering, how many VFR only pilots have and USE a night rating?

All US private pilots may fly at night unless there is some kind of
restriction on their certificates. Night flight is very common.

In article Kmw1c.128621$Hy3.30256@edtnps89,
Marc Lattoni wrote:

Just wondering, how many VFR only pilots have and USE a night rating?

Well, I'm in the US, so there is no special rating. Flying at night
makes me a little uneasy because 1) enroute, even if you are conservative
in your flightplanning, there is a good chance that a forced landing is
going to be on unknown (until you hit it!) terrain, and 2) there are
plenty of things to hit out there once you are descending into your
destination airport.

While flying off the insurance requirement for my Comanche my CFI and
I did a day cross country to Roseburg (RBG) that qualified for the
Commercial requirement. Looking at:

http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?lat=....356333&size=l

You can see that it is surrounded by hills, obstructing the traffic
pattern on both sides. The hills are big enough to obscure your
view of the entire airport valley on downwind (assuming you're wide
of them). At night you might be tempted to fly a downwind directly
over them if you didn't know they were there. To give you some idea,
the instrument approaches to this aiport have MDAs ranging from 1200'AGL
to 2000'AGL. It doesn't look as imposing on a sectional.

Anyway, a few days later, needing to burn off a few more hours, I decided
to satisfy my night commercial XC. I was about to fly the same plan
when I started thinking about what it would be like to arrive at Roseburg
at night...

--
Ben Jackson

http://www.ben.com/

In article Kmw1c.128621$Hy3.30256@edtnps89,
Marc Lattoni wrote:
As a VFR only pilot, I thought it pointless to get a night rating due to the
potential difficulties of encountering a "black hole" and not having the
skills to get back to safety. But our flight school encourages us to
experience the beauty of night flying on clear nights.

Just wondering, how many VFR only pilots have and USE a night rating?

In the US private pilots can fly at night with a 'standard issue'
certificate. I use to do a lot of night flying right after I got my
certificate but not as much lately. I fly from KBFI (Boeing Field in
Seattle, WA). I never really had any problems save for take offs from
isolated fields (ie. no real horizon with nose up).
ATC was a lot more friendly, the air is really smooth, and it's just
all around more enjoyable to fly at night IMHO. Maybe if I was flying in
North Dakota or someplace that was all flat, all dark and moonless it
would be a different story

It seems interesting that in Canada we learn to recover from spins and in
the US pilots learn to fly at night. (not to mention chandelles etc).

Wonder if one set of skills is preferable or whether pilots should learn
both.


"C J Campbell" wrote in message
...

"Marc Lattoni" wrote in message
news:Kmw1c.128621$Hy3.30256@edtnps89...
As a VFR only pilot, I thought it pointless to get a night rating due to
the
potential difficulties of encountering a "black hole" and not having the
skills to get back to safety. But our flight school encourages us to
experience the beauty of night flying on clear nights.

Just wondering, how many VFR only pilots have and USE a night rating?

All US private pilots may fly at night unless there is some kind of
restriction on their certificates. Night flight is very common.

On Thu, 4 Mar 2004, Marc Lattoni wrote:

As a VFR only pilot, I thought it pointless to get a night rating due to the
potential difficulties of encountering a "black hole" and not having the
skills to get back to safety. But our flight school encourages us to
experience the beauty of night flying on clear nights.

Just wondering, how many VFR only pilots have and USE a night rating?

I added the Night Rating right after getting my PPL; I've been
in and out of currency ever since. The trouble is that most people aren't
interested in flying at night - "there'll be nothing to see!" - and I like
sharing my flights. (my wallet likes shared flights too...)

I'm currently out of night currency again (as of the end of Jan/04) but
I'm going do my legal minimums for currency sometime this month. I'm also
incredibly aware that there's a huge gap between 'legal currency' and
'practical currency'. I'll fly at least one solo night XC again before
taking pax up at night...

Brian - PP-ASEL/Night

Marc Lattoni wrote:
As a VFR only pilot, I thought it pointless to get a night rating due to the
potential difficulties of encountering a "black hole" and not having the
skills to get back to safety. But our flight school encourages us to
experience the beauty of night flying on clear nights.

Just wondering, how many VFR only pilots have and USE a night rating?


Night flying is one of my favorite kinds of flying. An S.F. Bay
tour at night is not to be missed, although IMHO, the best time is not
in total darkness, but in twilight while there is still enough
light to see beaches, hills, etc. And you have never seen a more
breathtaking full moon rise than one seen from 5,000 ft. It is this
incredibly deep red, because you are seeing it through about 100 miles
of atmosphere rather than the usual 2-3.

Night flying has its advantages: air is usually smoother, temperatures
are lower (advantage in the summertime, not so great in winter), traffic
is lighter, and much easier to see. Even GA aircraft can be seen
10-20 miles away.

I once flew VFR from Palo Alto, CA to Big Bear, 3 hours each way, both
ways at night. But there was a full moon, which cast a ghostly glow
on hills along I-5.

Granted, my requirements for night VFR are higher than daytime:
perfect weather (no clouds, at least at the altitutes I plan to fly),
IFR-equipped aircraft, higher fuel minimums, less tolerance for aircraft
squawks. I also try to preflight before sunset, although I chose my
current tiedown spot so that it adjacent to an airport light stand,
so even at night there is fairly good lighting.

Night VFR is a blast. Get the proper training and go try it.


Happy landings,
Ross Oliver

"Marc Lattoni" writes:

Just wondering, how many VFR only pilots have and USE a night rating?

I frequently flew at night when I was VFR-only. Heck, going between
Indiana to California in the winter almost guaranteed I'd be flying
at night.

One of the big advantages flying brings to me is being able to make an
overnight trip into a day trip. I often figure that the time I'd
spend dealing with a hotel is about the time I'd spend just jumping in
the plane and flying home. To take advantage of this aspect of
flying, you'll almost certainly want to fly at night.

OTOH, I flew single-engine night VFR (in flat Indiana) about as often
as I flew during the day when I first started. Then I experienced a
(very minor) engine problem on the way home one night. I'm reluctant
to fly single-engine night these days. I won't try to argue that it
makes perfect sense, but when *the* engine gets rough at night, I get
anxious.

--kyler