Night Rating

[petrolheadtony]

Anyone know the details on getting a CAA night rating for someone like me with an FAA PPL. In other words I have the 3 hours minimum of night flying required for the FAA PPL obtained 2 years ago, can that count towards the 5 (?) I believe you need or must the hours all be obtained within a certain time ? Also how much has to be solo rather than dual?
Grateful for any direction you can give me as I am a bit in the dark at present (groan!).

[Hufty]

Hi there - I was in a similar position to you. I had an FAA PPL but I also had a lapsed CAA PPL. I made sure that when I did my FAA PPL, I flew an extra few hours so that I had done all the flying necessary to get a JAA night rating - you need some cross country time (2 hours?) and some solo (one hour?) from memory. I am pretty sure your hours will count, even though they were a few years ago.

I was able to get the CAA to give me a night rating on the basis of my US flying (in fact I had no night hours in the UK and all my US flying was under FAA rules) but the difference is that I used my current FAA SEP rating to revalidate my CAA one had the night rating attached to it. If you don't have a CAA or JAA PPL you won't be able to get a night rating as you need a CAA/JAA licence to attach it to.

I did that to avoid spending more money on additional night training when doing my CPL, but it didn't work out that much cheaper when you include the "administration" costs applied by the CAA!!

Hope that helps???

[FlyingForFun]

Tony,

First of all, it's a night qualification, not a rating. That's a big difference in JAR-world, because it means you don't need a JAR instructor to do the training. Your FAA night instruction will count in full towards your qualification. I did my entire 5 hours with an FAA instructor.

The requirements for the issue of the rating are 5 hours of night flying, of which 3 must be dual, and one of those dual hours must be cross-country. You must do 5 solo take-offs and full-stop landings (which probably takes no more than 45 minutes). The rest can be either dual or solo - most people make up the 5 hours with extra dual time, but if you've already got solo time that'll be fine as long as you meet all the other requirements.

If you've done everything you need to do already, the only thing left is to fill out the paperwork and send it to the CAA, with a cheque of course!. You will need your instructor's signature on the form, though.

FFF
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[petrolheadtony]

Thanks Hufty and FlyingForFun - nice to know that the existing hours will count