I may have missed the point here (forgive me), but if you can see the terrain, any relected light from the moon, and any residual light from the sun, and any radiated lights, then you are in fact in sight of the ground and then infact in visual contact with the ground.

Anybody who is from the countryside will vouch that at night, things are quite visible. City folk may imagine it to be black at night, but things are quite visible once you give them a chance.

With Night Rating you do not need IMC/IR to fly at night as long as you maintain visual contact with the ground.

Bose-x

With the very greatest of respect, if YOU read his post, you will find that the words you quote were in an exchange with IO540, not me.

If you then consider what he says in his reply to me

The night rating course covers how to navigate in the dark, a little brief but does.

The tiny bit of time under the hood during PPL training should be enough to tell you how to read the AI to see if you are plumeting to death.


Both these statements read to me as if written by someone with relatively little experience of night flying outside the training environment, thus my question.

Tiggermoth

You say I may have missed the point here (forgive me), but if you can see the terrain, any relected light from the moon, and any residual light from the sun, and any radiated lights, then you are in fact in sight of the ground and then infact in visual contact with the ground.

Of course you are correct, however what about moonless nights or nights with a high overcast? What about areas of countryside with no lights?

So when you say With Night Rating you do not need IMC/IR to fly at night as long as you maintain visual contact with the ground. I would agree completely with you, but personally would not fly at night in the expectation that this is guaranteed, thus my view being that it is sensible to be instrument qualified (and current) for serious night flying.

The night rating itself is great for keeping one legal during twilight, with a little currency, but beyond that it needs to be taken pretty seriously IMHO.

FYI, I gained my NR in 1994.

It seems you asked him a specific question I just pointed it out. The last post from Gcolyer was that if the weather was bad you should have some form of instrument rating to fly at night, you asked why and how many hours he had. Now did you mis quote or did I?

Bose-X

You quoted a weather related aspect of his reply to IO540.

My query was not weather related, FWIW I agree with his view in that context.

OK, glad we cleared that one up!