Preparing a night flight
The three legal definitions of night, the 91.205(c) equipment list, and the planning discipline night flying demands.
14 min read · Night flying
After this lesson you can
- Apply the correct one of three FAA definitions of night depending on whether you're logging time, showing lights, or checking currency.
- List what 14 CFR 91.205(c) adds to the day-VFR equipment list.
- Assemble the personal equipment and preflight checks specific to a night departure.
- Plan weather, route, and fuel margins appropriately for flying where you cannot see the ground.
Night flying is not a different way of flying the airplane -- the Airplane Flying Handbook says so explicitly: the airplane does not know it is dark. What is different is everything that happens before the engine starts. Anything that daylight would let you fix by looking outside in flight has to be decided and checked on the ground instead, because outside will not answer.
A second complication is specific to the regulations: the word "night" does not mean one thing. Three separate FAA definitions of night exist, each attached to a different rule, and mixing them up produces real mistakes -- flying legally while not qualified to carry passengers, or logging night time that will not satisfy a currency requirement.
The rest of this lesson
- 1.Three definitions of night
- 2.Equipment for night VFR: 14 CFR 91.205(c)
- 3.Personal equipment
- 4.Weather and route planning
- 5.Fuel, altitude, and alternates
- 6.Preflight and the ramp
- 7.Starting, taxi, and run-up
These 7 sections, their figures, the checks along the way and the end-of-lesson quiz come with the CPL track. Paid once, yours for good.
Key terms
Try to recall each definition before turning the card.