No Speed Restrictions,
Forgive the Antipodean slant on everything but were you to even think of doing such at night in Australia you'd have a CASA Flight Ops Inspector waiting for you to shut-down so he could grab your licence and tear it into pieces.
The answer in this neck of the woods is: NO!
Night VFR rules call for not below the MSA/LSALT until within a 3nm radius of the aerodrome with the aerodrome in sight - regardless of the quality of the VMC (ie - all the 9s or marginal).
IFR must still utilise MSA/LSALT until within the AD's Circling Area (which is dependent on Category of Aircraft - my plane is Category B, so its circling area is 2.66nm arcs from the threshold of each end of the runway joined tangentially) with the aerodrome in sight.
If IFR and conducting an Instrument Approach in VMC at night (eg - practice) you can descend below the MSA/LSALT to MDA outside of these areas but ONLY IF FOLLOWING THE APPROACH PROCEDURE WITHIN ITS PRESCRIBED LIMITS AND DO NOT ABANDON THE APPROACH UNTIL WITHIN CIRCLING AREA - with the aerodrome in sight!
The only times these regs are relaxed r.e.-descent below MSA/LSALT is when;
1) the aircraft is within 5nm of an aerodrome (7nm if runway is ILS equipped) established on the runway centreline and not below "On Slope" of the PAPI/VASI system
OR
2) the aircraft is within 10nm of the aerodrome established within full scale deflection of the Localiser and not below "On Slope" of the ILS Glidepath.
Can anyone throw more light on the JAA regs for this sort of manouever for me? I can't believe they'd vary so much between our 2 authorities!