On Saturday, December 9, 2017 at 10:22:14 AM UTC-6, Dan Marotta wrote:
Why not?

And you don't need an SEL rating to fly a motor glider.Â* You can fly a
Stemme on a PPL Glider with a self launch endorsement, though I wouldn't
recommend it for someone without a bit of experience.

On 12/8/2017 7:44 PM, son_of_flubber wrote:
This video is a little confusing because all of the graphics show daytime conditions. But at one point ATC says that 'we've turned on all the lights, you should be able to see us'.

So I'm thinking that this incident was at night, and that is why the pilot did not want to land off airport.

Can you fly motorgliders at night if you have PPL-SEL+glider ratings? I know that some of them have lights and electrical systems.

--
Dan, 5J

You don't need an SEL license to fly a motorglider day or night. What you need is a glider license. An SEL license itself is insufficient to fly any glider, including motorgliders, regardless of how much they resemble airplanes.