Do you teach night rating to mostly people who don't have IR(R), and does it make a difference if they do have it?
I'd say, mostly, yes, it's to people without an Instrument qualification and it makes less difference than you'd think though of course the IR(R) course sharpens up your general flying anyway.
The first hour of the Night course starts, paradoxically, in daylight, just before dusk. The takeoff feels entirely normal for daytime ops, but as you level off, although you can see all the usual ground features, fields, hedgerows, individual houses etc, you'll notice that the cars have started to turn on headlights and the light from shop windows illuminates the pavement. Street lighting starts to come on and the sky towards the East is less distinct. As you fly around, the definition of the fields start to become less easy to make out, though you feel that you could still see to land on an unlit runway. After official night time passes, you start to see that the roads are now defined by the lights of the traffic and the shape of towns by the street lighting. In the days of sodium street lights, not only the shape but the colour of towns matched those on the 1/2 mil chart. By 1/2 hour after official night, fields have mostly lost their definition but you can easily see where you are by local roads and habitation. There is still a good visual horizon, especially to the West. Now's the time to land at an airfield with runway lights and prepare for your first night dual navex. I like to have this all prepared beforehand so it's just a five-minute hold on the taxiway to re-brief and then do the first night take-off. Whilst it's true that there aren't as many visual cues as daytime, there'll still e plenty of horizon definition until a couple of hours after sunset. I wouldn't recommend your first night flight to be more than an hour after official night.
Anyhow, why not go and do it for yourself? I understand that in the United States, Night flying forms a part of the basic PPL course, they can't see what all the fuss is about!
TOO