Student night solo?

I'm a CFI and was curious how many CFI's sign their students off for
flying solo at night. I personally don't feel comfortable doing it.

Thanks,
Pete

"Peter MacPherson" wrote in message
news:9kQad.459163$8_6.292132@attbi_s04...
I'm a CFI and was curious how many CFI's sign their students off for
flying solo at night. I personally don't feel comfortable doing it.

During my training, all student night flights were dual. The aircraft owners
in that area had that stipulated in the renter's agreement. Other things in
the rental restrictions were no grass strips and no spins.

On Tue, 12 Oct 2004 13:16:35 GMT, "G. Burkhart"
wrote:

"Peter MacPherson" wrote in message
news:9kQad.459163$8_6.292132@attbi_s04...
I'm a CFI and was curious how many CFI's sign their students off for
flying solo at night. I personally don't feel comfortable doing it.

During my training, all student night flights were dual. The aircraft owners
in that area had that stipulated in the renter's agreement. Other things in
the rental restrictions were no grass strips and no spins.

I think I had around 4 hours night, but it was all dual including one
cross country.

Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com

On Tue, 12 Oct 2004 13:16:35 GMT, "G. Burkhart"
wrote:

"Peter MacPherson" wrote in message
news:9kQad.459163$8_6.292132@attbi_s04...
I'm a CFI and was curious how many CFI's sign their students off for
flying solo at night. I personally don't feel comfortable doing it.

During my training, all student night flights were dual. The aircraft owners
in that area had that stipulated in the renter's agreement. Other things in
the rental restrictions were no grass strips and no spins.

I think I had around 4 hours night, but it was all dual including one
cross country.

Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com

"Peter MacPherson" wrote in message
news:9kQad.459163$8_6.292132@attbi_s04...
I'm a CFI and was curious how many CFI's sign their students off for
flying solo at night. I personally don't feel comfortable doing it.

During my training, all student night flights were dual. The aircraft owners
in that area had that stipulated in the renter's agreement. Other things in
the rental restrictions were no grass strips and no spins.

Peter MacPherson wrote:

I'm a CFI and was curious how many CFI's sign their students off for
flying solo at night. I personally don't feel comfortable doing it.

My CFI did not do so when I was training. My first solo night flight took place after
I got my PPC.

George Patterson
If a man gets into a fight 3,000 miles away from home, he *had* to have
been looking for it.

Peter MacPherson wrote:

I'm a CFI and was curious how many CFI's sign their students off for
flying solo at night. I personally don't feel comfortable doing it.

My CFI did not do so when I was training. My first solo night flight took place after
I got my PPC.

George Patterson
If a man gets into a fight 3,000 miles away from home, he *had* to have
been looking for it.

My comment would be... how much instruction and experience did the
student get in night operations? Just the bare minimum? How well does
the student perform with minimal direct supervision?

My brother in law actually had some student night solo time, but that
was a byproduct of his training.. he worked long days, and so much of
his training was evening and dusk. Over 1/3rd of his hours were at night
by the time he took his checkride. His DE initially thought there was an
error on his form 8710.

My answer as a non-CFI is.. I would expect the number of CFI's who
actually endorse a student for night solo to be VERY low.. simply as a
result of the environment in which we instruct and train.

Dave

Peter MacPherson wrote:
I'm a CFI and was curious how many CFI's sign their students off for
flying solo at night. I personally don't feel comfortable doing it.

Thanks,
Pete

Dave S wrote
My answer as a non-CFI is.. I would expect the number of CFI's who
actually endorse a student for night solo to be VERY low.. simply as a
result of the environment in which we instruct and train.

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?

My policy is that the student gets a night solo endorsement when he
completes his night and instrument training. If I don't feel like he
can fly at night and maintain an adequate level of safety and
proficiency, then we do more than the mandated 3 hour minimum (this
has happened). If he doesn't like it, he can find another instructor
(this has not).

Michael

"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