After the student was doing OK in the circuit I got the tower to turn of the PAPI system for the remaining circuits. If you have only done night landings on a runway with an appraoch aid you are IMO not equiped to safely land on
a runway with only simple edge lights. I also always finished off the circuit portion with no landing light landings. Since most light aircraft have only one landing light and it only has a 25 hr life you are virtually guaranteed to eventually have to make a for real landing with no landing light.
Other things to think about (for low time PPL's)
- It is very easy to hit things while taxing. If the ramp is crowded, think about how you are going to get out before you get in the airplane and always stay on the taxiway yellow line.
- Think about others when using your lights on the ground. My pet peeves are pilots who turn the white stobes on, when on the ground, and who do not turn the landing light off when they are pointing at another aircraft
- Bad weather is an absolute killer at night. I tell my students that there should be no cloud at all below an altitude which is 2000 ft higher than any part of your flight, and you should not fly at night in any kind of precipitation under any circumstances. Watch the temp/dew point spread, those wonderfully clear nights can be the most dangerous. A 3 degree spread at the time of the flight is the least you want to see.
- Be realsitic about the extra risks you are exposing yourself to. The last statistics I saw from the US was for any given flight that a non instrument rated PPL flying a single engine aircraft undertook, the chance of a fatal accident was 25 times higher than for the same flight conducted during the day. Personally as a ATPL 6000 hr pilot with a current Canadian Class 1 flight instructor rating (the highest FI qualification) I will no longer fly single engine aircraft at night outside of the circuit