Welcome Guest. Sign in or Signup

2 Answers

Logging night training time

Asked by: 5333 views ,
FAA Regulations, Private Pilot, Student Pilot

I am finishing up my PPL training. There are several definitions of night for various purposes. When logging a "night" flight training time, which do I use? 

My instructor says I have to use the hour after sunset. I think this is incorrect as that is only necessary for currency of carrying a passenger. For logging  night time hours to qualify my practical test I seem to think this is appropriate:

(14 CFR) part 1: “Night means the time between the end of evening civil twilight and the begin- ning of morning civil twilight, as published in the American Air Almanac, converted to local time.”

I found that last paragraph from an FAA article:  https://www.faa.gov/news/safety_briefing/2008/media/NovDec2008.pdf

 

Thanks everyone!

Ace Any FAA Written Test!
Actual FAA Questions / Free Lifetime Updates
The best explanations in the business
Fast, efficient study.
Pass Your Checkride With Confidence!
FAA Practical Test prep that reflects actual checkrides.
Any checkride: Airplane, Helicopter, Glider, etc.
Written and maintained by actual pilot examiners and master CFIs.
The World's Most Trusted eLogbook
Be Organized, Current, Professional, and Safe.
Highly customizable - for student pilots through pros.
Free Transition Service for users of other eLogs.
Our sincere thanks to pilots such as yourself who support AskACFI while helping themselves by using the awesome PC, Mac, iPhone/iPad, and Android aviation apps of our sponsors.

2 Answers



  1. Wes Beard on Apr 13, 2017

    You are right that there are three separate definitions and application of night time. The first deals with position lights which are required to be on from sunset to sunrise. Second, you can log night time in your logbook from the end of civil twilight to the beginning of civil twilight. Finally, you can count night takeoffs and landings one hour after sunset to one before sunrise for the purposes of maintaining night currency for passengers.

    You need a total of three hours of night flight (civil twilight) but the 10 takeoffs and landings must be done one hour after sunset to qualify for the practical test.

    +1 Votes Thumb up 1 Votes Thumb down 0 Votes



  2. Kris Kortokrax on Apr 25, 2017

    There is no language in 61.109(a)(2) that requires that the 10 takeoffs and landings be performed 1 hour after sunset. It just says “night flight training.”

    RyGuy’s thoughts are correct and his instructor is wrong.

    However, the landings must be to a full stop. If he started exactly at civil twilight, I doubt that he could accomplish the 10 landings in a half hour. Further, while it might be allowed, the training benefit from waiting until an hour after sunset would be enhanced.

    +1 Votes Thumb up 2 Votes Thumb down 1 Votes


The following terms have been auto-detected the question above and any answers or discussion provided. Click on a term to see its definition from the Dauntless Aviation JargonBuster Glossary.

Answer Question

Our sincere thanks to all who contribute constructively to this forum in answering flight training questions. If you are a flight instructor or represent a flight school / FBO offering flight instruction, you are welcome to include links to your site and related contact information as it pertains to offering local flight instruction in a specific geographic area. Additionally, direct links to FAA and related official government sources of information are welcome. However we thank you for your understanding that links to other sites or text that may be construed as explicit or implicit advertising of other business, sites, or goods/services are not permitted even if such links nominally are relevant to the question asked.