FAA PPL night flight requirement - does it have to be DUAL?

"Peter" wrote in message
...
You meet the night cross country requirement with either flight listed
above. There's no requirement for a solo night cross country of any
distance in the regs. If you've done 10 night takeoffs and landings
you meet the requirements for that part of the reg.

My reading of the first paragraph above is that *both* (i) and (ii)
are required, and the word "night" does apply to both (i) and (ii).

Yes, it does. I assume that Peter Clark was not implying that the XC flight
required by 61.109(2)(i) is not required to be done at night; rather, I read
his statement to (correctly) mean that there's no *SOLO* night XC
requirement. The only night XC requirement specifically requires an
instructor to be on board.

I have 11 takeoffs after Civil Twilight, and 21 landings after Civil
Twilight, so (ii) should be satisfied.

Yup.

I now have (i) also but after advice from some people who should know
I did it solo.

There was no requirement to do so. The flight you did solo doesn't do
anything to help you meet any of 61.109. However, from your original post,
it appears that you already had the necessary dual flight required by
61.109(2)(i), so you're fine in that respect.

It is possible that the words "night flight TRAINING" (my emphasis)
refer to dual flying because in practice that is what the student will
have to do; at that stage he won't be legal to do it solo.

The student is legal to do it solo if his instructor signs him off to do so.
I hope that you had the necessary instructor endorsement before you made
your 119NM (239NM? you never said whether it was one-way or round-trip)
flight.

As far as what "night flight training" means, it means exactly what it would
seem to mean to someone NOT trying to read between the lines. It's a night
flight during which training is taking place; that is, an instructor is on
board and giving training.

It means that because the FAA wants an instructor on board, not because the
pilot would not otherwise be qualified to make the flight (since, after all,
it's possible the student pilot would be qualified to make the flight
without the instructor).

In my case, I have some 400 hours, lots of IFR/IMC time (on a UK
license), and the UK night rating, so can fly at night solo or even
IFR in IMC.

In a UK-registered aircraft and/or in the UK, of course. AFAIK, the UK
license doesn't make you legal in the US, flying a US-registered aircraft.
It's not clear from any of your posts which certificate (the UK license or
the US student pilot certificate) you're using as the basis for legality for
the various flights you're making, or where those flights were made.

I have heard of people who did their 100nm night flight solo.

There are no such people. The regulation clearly requires an instructor to
be on board in order to meet the requirements given.

Perhaps you have, instead, heard of people who did *A* 100NM night flight
solo? With the appropriate instructor endorsement (or other qualifying
circumstances), that would be permissible, though would not help the pilot
achieve the requirements given in 61.109(2).

Are you saying that Americans are able to get an FAA PPL without doing
10 *night* takeoffs and landings and without flying 100nm fully at
night?

Anyone, American or not, can get an FAA Private Pilot Certificate without
doing those. However, they will have a "no night flying" restriction on
their certificate.

The rest of us had to do the required night training, as clearly described
in the regulations.

Pete