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Old 30th October 2012 | 15:26
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BackPacker
 
Joined: Feb 2007
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From: Amsterdam
I was thinking in Europe the night VFR was not allowed . There is any change ?
Actually the situation was very muddled, and EASA has brought all countries in line.

In the UK Night VFR was only allowed within a control zone or something like that. Outside the control zones you had to fly IFR at night. BUT you could fly IFR without an IR as long as you maintained VMC. And this was only allowed, obviously, if you held an NQ. For all practical purposes, now that NVFR is going to be allowed in the UK, nothing much will changed there, with the possible exception of the various VFR/VMC minima you have to adhere to. (And which are incredibly hard to judge at night, and not enforceable at all.)

In a few other countries, including the Netherlands, NVFR was forbidden as part of the airspace policy. Flying at night can only be done under IFR, and requires a full IR and an IFR flight plan. And that will continue to be the case under EASA. At least, that's how things stand today, as far as I know.

As far as doing it as part of the PPL is concerned, yes, that's entirely possible. But it's only sensible to do the NVFR bits well at the end of your course. It requires a different skill set. Landings are harder, but for the en-route phase you will also want to be very proficient in using radio navigation and such.

Furthermore, night flying - even considering that there are less aircraft in the sky to hit - is significantly more challenging (and thus, potentially more dangerous) than day flying. Navigation is harder, it's easier to end up in IMC conditions, and even in VMC you've got to worry about optical illusions such as false horizons. When the engine quits there's far less chance of a good outcome, there are far less alternates available if there's a minor emergency, and so on and so forth.

So if you are progressing well with your PPL training, and it looks like you'll be ready for the skills test in less than 45 hours, by all means go ahead and use the remaining hours to get some night experience and possibly the NQ. But if you are a normal student who will not be able to get up to standard in the minimum 45 hours, you might as well leave it for now, and do the NQ in a few years time when you've got your PPL and a little more experience.

Last edited by BackPacker; 30th October 2012 at 15:28.
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