Night Rating...

[SAMIR786]

Hi

I am planning on doing my PPL at EFT (Florida, US) next April and also considering doing the night rating.

Is this recommended?

What are its exact privileges? Can I both take-off as well as land at night?

Also, I want to do all my ground exams in UK prior to departing. Does anyone know of any test centres within London where I can go and do these exams?

What are the typical examination fees?


Thanks!

[Magic Pie]

Can I both take-off as well as land at night?

No, you can only take off. If you read the CAA's website you must take off then fly around for 8 hours in your Cessna until official night is over. :}

Seriously, yes you can take off and land at night. For carrying passengers after dark, you must have made x take off and landings at night within the last x days - 3/30 respectively I think. Technically, I don't think this rule applies for solo but I can't imagine a flight school would give you an aeroplane at night unless you had some sort of recency. I am happy to be corrected on any of my points since it is donkeys since I did my night rating and flew at night and am scraping the old memory. Personally, I think night flying in a light aircraft is great fun, though if an engine stopped perhaps I would revise my opinion very quickly.

Enjoy :ok:

[SAMIR786]

Cheers Mate!

:O

[FlyingForFun]

For carrying passengers after dark, you must have made x take off and landings at night within the last x days - 3/30 respectively I thinkRight idea, but the details aren't right....

To carry passengers, you must have done 3 take-offs and landings as sole manipulator of the controls within the previous 90 days. If you are carrying passengers at night, then at least one of those take-offs and landings must have been at night (unless you also hold an IR, but I don't think that applies to you?)

As for club rules, every club will be different. A common rule is that you must have flown that type of aircraft within the previous 28 days to be able to rent it solo... in theory, that means you could go to your club after 91 days of not flying, do two circuits with an instructor, and then hire the aircraft for solo flying... but not be legal to carry passengers.

As for night currency, I don't know of any clubs which insist on using an instructor to get night-current. As long as you are current on the type, at the start of winter you will simply do one solo circuit, then you are able to carry passengers. But on the other hand, if you'd be happier doing your first circuit each winter with an instructor, I don't know any instructors who would refuse.

FFF
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[Flingingwings]

I can only foresee one potential problem with your plans.

Only current on heli rules so you may want to look through Lasors.

But believe you will see that in order to complete a JAA night rating whilst holding a basic ppl, entry requirements are 100 hours flying POST ppl issue and 15 hours of simulated instrument instruction.

You staying in the US that long????

[Keygrip]

It's called a Night QUALIFICATION - and you may do it as PART of the PPL, no need for anything additional.

[helicopter-redeye]

I think that is a difference between JAR and FAA (I recall it was a few years ago).

h-r

[A251]

a night qualification can be done whilst doing your ppl(A) or (tmg) as long as you have reached 25 hours dual and 10 hours solo.

hope that clears things up,

ted :ok:

[FlyingForFun]

Flingingwings - I think that's only the case for helis. Not sure, I'm not too hot on helicoptor rules, but it's certainly not the case for fixed-wing.

FFF
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[Pilot16]

Samir,

I did it as part of my PPL. If I recall correct, you have to do 5 hours of total night flying, in which you must do five take-offs and landings solo (just five circuits around the airfield) and you must have departed the circuit once and rejoined.

The five hours count as full towards your minimum 45 hours for PPL issue. You save some £/$ because you are not applying for a night qualification seperately. This means you can do some night flying in your hour building.

[SAMIR786]

Cheers guys!

Nice tip Pilot16...

:ok:

I'll try and integrate some night flying in my PPL hours building to save costs.

[FlyingForFun]

Samir,

If you are going to start your PPL in April you might have trouble doing the Night Qualification as part of the PPL - depends what time it gets dark, and what time your instructors want to work until ;)

Bear in mind that night flying should be done towards the end of the PPL. Personally, I'd like my students to have completed their solo (daytime) circuits, and have done at least one session of instrument flying and one session of navigation - otherwise you won't be able to appreciate the differences, and the training will largely be a waste of time as far as learning anything useful is concerned.

FFF
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[SAMIR786]

Flyingforfun

I am planning on doing my PPL at EFT in Florida.

Does the day/night factor still apply?

Thanks

[Pilot16]

Id like to correct my self on where I said that you have to have departed the circuit once by your self. I just remembered that I did not have to do this back when I did my night rating as the requirements were changed or something along those lines.
Sorry for the confusion.

[Lasiorhinus]

IF you are doing your training in Florida, then I would guess you will be doing an FAA licence? Or have you decided to do the JAA course over in America?

THe point is, the american license REQUIRES you do do night training before you get your private certificate. (they dont call them licences). You need to do , i think, five hours at night, before you are able to sit the PPL flight test.

Good luck.

[dpm]

Hello folks!

Right, let's try to clear this up. I've just finished a JAA PPL with NQ and a FAA PPL in Florida, and I just checked the log book before sending it off to the Campaign Against Aviation. So:

For the JAA PPL it was 5 hours at night, of which 3 hours must be dual, and 1 hour must be cross country. (Notice that the 1 hour cross country can be with an instructor.) The only solo requirement was 5 solo take-offs and full-stop landings (so stop-and-go rather than touch-and-go).

For the FAA PPL, I believe the requirement was only 3 hours, but that's obviously covered if you are doing the JAA. The FAA requires 10 take-offs and landings; however, there is no solo requirement. Note that this is part of the basic FAA syllabus.

Samir786, you don't need to worry about day/night things; the Florida day lengths don't vary that much. My experience at Naples was that they were happy to plan everything out, so I didn't have to worry about schedules; obviously I can't speak for EFT but assume that they would be similar.

Have fun, DPM

PS Samir786, btw, make sure that you double-check that your school is SEVIS registered for visa issue. EFT are not listed directly on the SEVIS approved list, but that's probably because they're registered under a different trading name. It's worth double-checking, since I almost signed up for a school that didn't have visa approval. Sorry, not relevant to the NQ, but make sure you triple check everything.

[UnderneathTheRadar]

Sorry to drag this up again but can someone point me in the direction of the fine print that covers my understanding of the night hours issue.

I have an Oz PPL and am now working towards a JAR fATPL. I am going back to Oz for a holiday in January and intended to get my night rating (as CASA call it) and five hours night flying while I'm there.

Is this all I need to keep on track for my flying over here?

Cheers,

UTR.