Night VFR help??
 

G'day all, I'm currently in rainy Cairns and I am wanting to get on with my night rating, trouble is the weather is a tad crappy at the mo.....can anyone suggest a flight school a little further south (Pref QLD) I can go to......ASAP?:( Cheers!

Maybe an Instrument rating would be more appropriate? ;)

Once one could once achieve a class 4 DAY rating which covered all your navaids sans the actual night flying. Also one could fly above 8/8 cloud with positive RNAV fixes during the day which one can also do with a class 4 NIGHT.

Is ther still a class 4 DAY?

Well, .... I don't know, but it may be worth making some phone calls.

NVFR is a good rating to precede PIFR or CIR. It gets you into Instrument flying and NDB and VOR intercepts. However if you plan to do an instrument rating very soon, I would bypass NVFR.

Class 4 instument rating no longer exists. A basic PIFR allows you to fly cross country in cloud above LSALT - you need additonal FPA's to depart into cloud or to do instrument approaches. PIFR is only good for private flying. You need CIR if you plan to go CPL. The advantage of PIFR over CIR for a private pilot is you only do what you need, and the currency requirements are not as onerous.

PS - As a PIFR pilot, I think the PIFR currency requirements are a bit slack.........

As a CIR pilot flying privately, I will be getting the PIFR signed out next renewal so that when the odd time comes along and I am a few days out of CIR recency, the PIFR rules can apply and bingo the CIR is current again.

I think our mate the Forkie Dr has now done a similar thing for that reason.

Why wait? If you have a CIR, just fill in the application form for the PIFR (from the CASA website) and send it in to CASA. They will send you a page (with sticky label) to glue into your logbook. If you have all the bells and whistles on your CIR, you'll get all the bells and whistles (FPAs) on your PIFR. :ok:

Smart lad Jaba....thats the way to go!:ok:

nice forking guys! but back on topic, not sure of many places on the qld coast that would be fairing any better weather wise this time of year. if it's not drizzly rainy crap it'll be thunderies. try heading inland.

There is no help
 

Do a CIR. If you can't, don't mess about with high performance weather in low`performance aircraft.

You've discovered the reason why everyone offers/completes NVFR training during the winter months! The cloud base is lower and persists longer into the night after a nice warm day, so it becomes really tough to stay above LSALT and also below cloud in these conditions :(

As mentioned above, head inland or south and you might have better luck, just do it quickly before the heat is really upon us. I got lucky here in SE QLD and completed it during a cold snap around 4 weeks ago.