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

On Wed, 13 Oct 2004 13:58:27 -0700, "Peter Duniho"
wrote:

"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.

Yep, I stand corrected in that the 3 hours night training "that
includes" would mandate the cross country be part of that 3 hours and
thus logged as dual received wouldn't it. So the extra solo night
cross country wouldn't be useful for anything under this part.

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.

If it is a standard UK certificate, wouldn't his easier path be
getting a US PPL based on foreign cert, a-la 61.75?

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.

Actually, I believe you might be mistaken on this one - the only night
exemption is I can see is 61.110 which appears to apply to Alaska
only.

"Peter Clark" wrote in message
...
[...]
If it is a standard UK certificate, wouldn't his easier path be
getting a US PPL based on foreign cert, a-la 61.75?

You'd think. But each pilot has their own circumstance. I'll take it as
granted that if a pilot feels it's easier to go through the "long form"
certification process than to convert a UK certificate, then it is.

Or perhaps in spite of all that aeronautical experience, he doesn't actually
hold a convertable certificate. I don't know.

Actually, I believe you might be mistaken on this one - the only night
exemption is I can see is 61.110 which appears to apply to Alaska
only.

Hmmm...interesting. Either my memory is too fuzzy, or this is yet another
example of a subtle change that occurred in 1997 (if I even have the year
correct), and which I've failed to note. They appear to have kept in the
general (non-Alaska) exception for gyroplanes, powered parachutes, and
weight-shift-control aircraft.

I could swear that, at least at some point in my past, they permitted
general "no night flying" certificates, even for pilots outside of Alaska.

Of course, the main point is that to be allowed to fly at night, all holders
of an FAA certificate obtained through the usual process must meet the night
training requirements.

Pete

Hmmm...interesting. Either my memory is too fuzzy, or this is yet
another
example of a subtle change that occurred in 1997 (if I even have the year
correct), and which I've failed to note. They appear to have kept in the
general (non-Alaska) exception for gyroplanes, powered parachutes, and
weight-shift-control aircraft.

I could swear that, at least at some point in my past, they permitted
general "no night flying" certificates, even for pilots outside of Alaska.

You're correct... but they closed that. Now, you can only get the
exception living in Alaska, but I _think_ you have to go back and do the
night stuff within six months or something like that. I had to do the
night training (which led to a last-minute hop the night before my
checkride to get the rest of the landings in) but it was all done with
an instructor (the XC is a story for a different time...). I think they
closed the exemption because too many people were trying to cheat the
restriction and were having accidents (read: got themselves killed) so
they figured it was better to make everyone do it even if they aren't
going to use it again. Now, we can debate the intelligence of VFR XC's
at night in single-engined airplanes for a long time to come...
personally, I don't fly more than a few miles from my home area (where I
can reconginze the landscape and airports, and can orient just by seeing
Atlanta on the horizon) at night, and even then I won't go without a
working, lighted GPS.