Or are there?
A simple solution to the curtailment that nightfall puts on training is simply this: Do more of your private pilot training at night.
And why not? The fence around the airport doesn't get any higher at night; you won't have to climb over it to get in. Keys still work in the locks, and if anything, the aircraft will be considerably more available. If your flight instructor has been flying all day and gets whiny about night dual, take him out to dinner first, thereby conditioning him to the idea that night lessons come with an implied meal. Bribery? Darn right. Consider compounding the crime with an ice cream cone or a brewed beverage after the flight is completed.
| Doing more night flying will give you ideas about what flashlights and other equipment--and backups--you'll want to carry. |
There are a few maneuvers required for the private pilot practical test that don't work well at night, or bring safety into question. But for others, what difference does it make whether the sun shines? You could even argue that certain elements of training not specifically included in the night-flight curriculum are better done at night anyway. Simulated flight by reference to instruments is an example. It's much harder to cheat at night, and taking off your view-limiting device won't necessarily reveal all that much to your wandering eyes. Knowing that adds focus to your training--and more focus means more learning.
There's an economic benefit to flying more at night for the cost-conscious. Under the federal aviation regulations a private pilot candidate must log three hours training in the "control and maneuvering of an airplane solely by reference to instruments," as well as three hours of night flight training (that includes one cross-country flight of over 100 nautical miles' distance, and 10 takeoffs and landings). Logging some of that required instrument time during the cross-country, and during introductory night dual instruction, can add to your night hours while reducing your total hours spent meeting training requirements. Call it constructive overlap. Of course, if reducing your total time spent in training is not an imperative, so much the better, as experience counts in the long run. Most private pilots get precious little night-flying experience, making every extra hour hugely valuable.
While all these benefits are accruing to your training because you're flying at night, another even more propitious thing is happening: you're getting more night flight than the average student pilot--but without having to fly more hours to get it. This benefit's value is hard to calculate. But here's a way to start: Ask around at your airport among the private pilots you know, focusing on the following two questions: "How much night flying did you do during your training?" And, "How much night flying have you done since?" Most people will respond with variations on the "Not much" theme. Thus they avoid night flying later on.
So what can you do productively at night that you had previously considered only doing during daytime flights? For starters, you'll be faced with the various cross-country navigation tasks as a matter of course, because the night-flying requirements include cross-country flying. Now think about the associated tasks such as diverting and systems failures--considering how to tackle them at night may get you studying that sectional chart a little harder during your preflight planning. Altitude selection also looks like more of a big deal now, especially if you are traversing an area with high obstructions or terrain features.
Doing more nocturnal flying during training will give you some ideas about what additional equipment to carry at night for your personal comfort. The additional night experience will probably make you less likely to forget some basic item--or a back-up unit--later on when preparing for night flying.
What else? It may be a good idea to pass on performing low-altitude maneuvers at night, for safety's sake. But high work such as performance turns and slow flight are worth sampling at night, when they're more dependent on attitude instrument flying than during the day. That's not to say that night flight equals instrument flight. This is still training conducted under visual flight rules, and that must be respected at all times.
| By training at night, you'll do more nocturnal flying than the average student pilot. Most private pilots get little night-flying experience. |
Pattern work and terminal departures and arrivals make great night exercises; don't stop when your "10 takeoffs and 10 landings to a full stop (with each landing involving a flight in the traffic pattern) at an airport" as mandated in the regulations are complete. Doubling or tripling that number will be of immense benefit. Especially on nights with a full or bright moon, sessions of takeoffs and landings can build up some night experience for you while complementing your daytime practice. And since a full moon must rise as the sun is setting, you can get to work right away.
On darker nights or when the moon rises later in the evening, night landings take on a different feel and are subject to optical illusions that affect your ability to judge height above the runway. Study up on those and be ready. Systems concerns apply then too: Aircraft landing lights burn out from time to time; that's a good situation to simulate on more than just one or two practice landings.
Speaking of lighting, watch out for those runway lights that somehow know they're supposed to click off just as you are turning final, or beginning your flare. If the wind is blowing crosswise to your runway, note the sight cues that let you pick up your training airplane's downwind drift. Runway edge lights, centerline lighting, or approach lights will be your early warning system. Remember on calm nights that wake turbulence from larger aircraft can hang around for a while. As the evening progresses, keep aware of temperature-dew-point spreads, staying wary for the beginning of radiation fog formation. Sometimes it can appear as if by magic. That practice diversion you did on your night cross-country could become the real thing if the airport "goes down."
Short- and soft-field takeoffs and landings at night? Why not? Even if it's only make-believe at the big airport, your focus on the techniques, and on squeezing every bit of performance out of your trainer, will sharpen you up.
Regardless of whether a destination airport is large or small, a night arrival at a less-than-totally-familiar airport in your area, followed by some circuits of its traffic pattern, has real value. Have you ever noticed how a familiar airport is a comfort when flying an unfamiliar aircraft, but a familiar aircraft is an even bigger comfort when flying into an unfamiliar airport? This is one way to gain new affection for that faithful old trainer you've been flying. As the old song goes: "The night time is the right time to be with the one you love."
If your home airport is a busy one, using crosswind runways or occupying the traffic pattern at night is less of an imposition on other operations. Night-shift air traffic controllers can be charmingly accommodating of special requests and at times may place the entire terminal area at your disposal. Is your airport one of the technologically blessed few that provides airport surveillance radar (ASR) approaches? Controllers need to practice this procedure, but their workload does not always permit such luxuries. Even though you are not yet working on an instrument rating, this may be a good time for your CFI to hand you that view-limiting device and have you fly the headings and altitudes that an ASR approach employs to bring a flight safely down to the runway.
Solo flying at night? It should be legal, safe, and rare, to mirror a political slogan. Few flight schools sanction that; the margin of safety just doesn't encourage the idea. Nor is it recommended here.
Maybe it's just a coincidence, but the amount of required night flying (three hours) expressed as a percentage of the average amount of time it takes to earn a private pilot certificate (about 60 hours) can be pegged at 5 percent. And, that's about how much of many private pilots' post-training flying is done at night. That's not much from a proficiency standpoint, but it does meet the bare minimum to be eligible for your private pilot flight test. From a cost point of view this becomes a fact of flight-training life. The reality is that night flying is not commonly the subject of a checkride except through verbal quizzing, so it's small wonder that most students and instructors consider it impractical to extend the night flying curriculum for its own sake.
Watch out for critters on night runways. Everything from deer to moose (up here in the north country) assumes that you will not be flying at night, and claims the runways for its own mysterious uses after dark. And because nocturnal instrument training is perfectly practical for the same reasons that much of the private pilot curriculum can be accomplished at night, stay on the lookout for aircraft flying instrument approaches to the active runway you are using--and to other runways as well. If the terminology used by instrument pilots is somewhat baffling, and you are not sure what they are doing, ask your flight instructor to interpret what you are hearing until you get used to it.
So there you have it--a whole block of time that is available to you for use in training, complete with benefits you may not have previously considered. Give the dark side a try. It could be the solution to your training delays.
Dan Namowitz is an aviation writer and flight instructor. A pilot since 1985 and an instructor since 1990, he resides in Maine.
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Links to additional resources about the topics discussed in this article are available at AOPA Flight Training Online.
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