Night VFR Soaring (USA)

"brian whatcott" wrote in message
...
BT wrote:


It's helpful to remember that the official definition of night is one
hour after civil twilight to one hour before civil dawn (by which time
it is often black as ..well..night.)

Brian W

Brian, Wrong answer. FAR 1.1 defines "night" as the end of evening civil
twilight to the beginning of morning civil twilight as published in the
American Air Almanac, converted to local time. The American Air Almanac
is now maintained by the US Naval Observatory.

For my location today, Morning Civil Twilight started at 5:42am and
Sunrise at 6:09am, 27 minutes later.
Sunset is 7:14pm and End of Civil Twilight is 7:40pm, 26 minutes later.

Not the "hour" that you suggest.

The "aircraft lighting" requirement is from Sunset to Sunrise (excluding
Alaska). 91.209, Not twilight to twilight.

BT


BT - wrong answer: right back at ya! :-)

If you need to get night current to carry passengers, follow the
definition of night as described in FAR 61.57(b), which is the "period
beginning one hour after sunset and ending one hour before sunrise."

Yes, there really are several different definitions in the FARs...

Brian W

Brian... but that is not the definition of "night".
It only defines that to carry a passenger between one hour after sunset and
one hour before sunrise you must perform 3 landings and take offs during the
same period, one hour after sunset to one hour before sunrise. Just because
the paragraph (b) starts with night, it does not define "night".

There is only one definition of Night in the FARS, and it is in Part 1.1.

BT