Use the American Air Almanac converted to local time to determine the appropriate civil twilight times for your flights. Keep your log book correct by noting that the 1 hour after sunset to 1 hour before sunrise rule applies to carrying passengers, but the rule for hours that can be logged as night flights is determined differently.įAR 1.1 sets night flying time as occurring between the end of evening civil twilight and the beginning of morning civil twilight.

To qualify to carry passengers during these times, FAR 61.57 (b) says that during the last 90 days you must have made at least 3 takeoffs and 3 landings to a full stop (touch and go’s don’t count) during this same window of time from 1 hour after sunset to 1 hour before sunrise. The restricted hours for being able to carry passengers start 1 hours after sunset and end 1 hour before sunrise. Navigation light requirementsįAR 91.209 (a) sets a requirement that all aircraft must operate lighted position lights from sunset to sunrise. Pay attention to the definition of night that is being used for each of the 3 regulations. Pro tip: the definition of “night” varies from regulation to regulation, and that is what tends to get new night pilots confused at first. The first is regarding the need for navigation lights, the second involves recency requirements and the third defines what flights can be logged and count for official night flight time. Know night flight regulations and how to log timeįirst things first – what do FAA rules say about night flight? There are 3 sets of night flight regulations that all pilots need to know. Let’s keep you and your future passengers safe by reviewing what the FAA considers a night flight, talking about what it takes to meet currency minimums, sharing the ways in which night flying differs from day flying, and going over common night flight errors so you can know to avoid them.

Especially as a GA pilot, it may be tempting to let your night flight currency lapse, but if you do, not only are you missing out on a whole lot of beautiful peaceful flights, but you are also setting yourself up for a potentially dangerous set of circumstances.Įven if you don’t have any plans to fly at night, doesn’t it make sense to have the skills just in case? After all, what happens if you haven’t logged any night time in ages and then you find yourself in a situation where you need to fly a night flight with passengers on board? You’re like many General Aviation pilots or even a good number of commercial airline pilots, you probably log more day flights than night ones.

Excel nightime pilot logbook