Night Flying. How many PPSEL pilots excersie night priveledges?

As with everything else, it depends.
As you get older, you get smarter (or more scared).
Flying at night reduces your options.
Mostly, it depends upon what it going to be beneath you (mountains,
water, flat land, swamps, etc)
You cannot see weather ahead of you, unless it is lightning.
There is often less traffic chatter on the frequency (sometimes it gets
so quiet you have to ask for a radio check to make certain your
equipment is still working).
Trying to find the rotating beacon in a congested urban area can be
challenging.
The air can often be calm because of lack of ground heating and
thermals, making for a smooth flight.
In areas where there is little ground lighting, you better know how to
flying on instruments. I have flown in mountainous areas where the
ground lighting was so sparse, the ground blended with the stars in the
night sky.
I have been flying for 26 years. I have flown one night cross country in
the past 10 years. VFR condtions, over mountainous/wooded/sparsely
populated terrain. It is something I will only do if all the conditions
are highly favorable.
The last night cross country I did last Spring was an IFR, KPBI/West
Palm Beach FL to KLEX/Lexington KY. Conditions were CAVU and I had 40kt
tailwinds which reduced my exposure time over the more hazardous
portions of the route.

wrote:

I have about 150 total hours now, but my only night flights were during
my training as required for certification.

I fly in the Bay Area, CA I would love to see the beautiful scenery of
the city lights that night flying offers.

How long does it take to comfortabley fly at night and how do those of
you that fly at night navigate in the dark?

Or I guess a better question is what techniques do you use at night to
navigate that are different then how you navigate during the day?

Do you just fly the altitudes that you fly during the day time to stay
safely from getting too close to anything?

I know the easy answer is to go up with an instructor, and I plan too,
but I wanted to hear from you all first and see what you do differently
at night versus the day and how many of you actually take advantage of
night flying.