If those fantastic night vision goggles or (FLIR) would become cheaper I would consider it..
FLIR is an option on the Cirrus at least....there is an SR22 here with it
I dont fly at night, and in a SEP I would not risk intentional IMC at night anyhow, it would be outside of my comfort zone. Why? The plane doesn't know it is night.
That is true of course. But as I say it is outside of my personal comfort (and safety) zone. The reasons being my home airport doesnt have runway lights. I got my NQ at Stapleford Aerodrome, but did little solo night flying, and I revalidated it once, so I have only about 8 hours total night flying time, and that was a few years ago.
On the IMC front, I have had the IMCr for 5 years now, and have clocked up quite a few hours in and above cloud. I wouldnt consider myself a Biggles, but with a decent safe cloud base below to descend to if necessary, and if the cloud tops arent 10'000 ft (given the PA28 has service ceiling about 12,000 and takes some time to get there), I quite enjoy the challenges of IMC flying. However, my experience is mostly in en-route navigation OCAS, rather than procedural and approach based (again, no approaches at my home airfield (though I periodically go to Cambridge and Southend to keep relatively current)).
And, I fly a 1980's Archer II. It's nice, its trustworthy, it has a Garmin GNS430, and I have an iPad so situational awareness isnt an issue. But it's still old, it has no anti-icing, something may go wrong any time day or night, and if there were any issues, i'd be more comfortable in daylight trying to deal with the situation and being able to find a field to land in.
I agree; with a SE engine failure it's going to be Russian roulette as to whether you hit something...
But there is "night" and there is "night". A lot of "night time" is logged immediately when legal which on UK/JAA papers is SS+30 mins and it isn't really dark then. FAA night, for the purposes of logging the 3/3 takeoffs/landings, is SS+1hr which is normally really dark.
