I think FS has answered this adequately, but one topic which came to my attention last night that I haven't found a ready answer to in the ANO interests me.
A couple of guys from our club were away in the club a/c and had delays getting back, such that it was after published hours for the home airfield (which is an A/G service) and was, in fact, dark! The aircraft is on an out of hours waiver for the field. One of the pilots was night qualified.
They tried to get into Dundee, but it was shut. They also tried Fife, which was in darkness. Eventually, they flexed their credit cards and flew into Edinburgh, incurring a £104 bill - somehow, they managed by dint of some active discussion, to get the handling charge waived.
It was always my belief that a licensed airfield with an A/G service can be used for landings outside published hours if you have the permission of the aircraft owner (hence the out of hours waiver). I would thus have seriously considered landing at the home airfield in this circumstance, accepting the fact that it was in darkness (that was part of my night training at Bournemouth - all the approach aids got switched off). I cannot readily find an answer to this in the regs - anyone got any comment??
