Student night solo?

One of the first things I did after getting my private ticket was
schedule a couple of flights with my CFI at night to get that level of
comfort I wanted before I attempted it all on my own or with passengers.

Sort of made pale by the stuff I did training for my instrument ticket,
partial panel, at night with simulated electrical failure.. that's about
as bad as it gets, the fact that I didn't just throw up my arms in
despair was a testament to the training I had recieved prior.

Robert

Peter Duniho wrote:

"Michael" wrote in message
om...

My answer as a CFI is - if not now, when? The student will have night
privileges when he passes the checkride. Therefore, if you don't feel
comfortable having him fly solo at night on your ticket, how can you
send him to the checkride?


The student will have passenger carrying privileges when he passes the
checkride. Therefore, if you don't feel comfortable having him fly with
passengers on your ticket, how can you send him to the checkride?

Seriously...the above analogy is only a little facetious. The truth is
that, once your student has passed his checkride, he will be legal to do a
whole slew of things never covered in primary training. The only
alternative to that situation is to make the primary training take orders of
magnitude longer than it does now.

Some things can be explored by the pilot on his own, gradually expanding his
envelope of flight skills, others really will require additional training
time with a qualified instructor before the student ought to try them. But
in all cases, they are examples of things that the student is not going to
be approved to do by his instructor before the checkride, nor should he be,
even though the FAA will consider him legal to attempt after the checkride.

I think it's great that you are able to train your students to solo
proficiency in night flight during the course of the student's training (you
don't say how often you are able to do this in the minimum three hours), but
the argument "he'll be able to do it after the checkride, so why not
before?" is just plain silly. It carries no logical weight whatsoever.

Pete