Do you use your night rating?

UdoR wrote:

Do you use your night rating?

So far only to renew my NVFR currency really. So not really, nor do I want to without a chute.

It only works if your home base allows night operations. Mine closes at SS+30 (but has lighting) the answer for me is therefore no (never used my night privileges). I have a 24/7 airport only 10 flight minutes away which could serve as a plan B but without night currency it doesn’t help much though I would love to use the night on return flights because it would take away a lot lot of time pressure on trips.

Risk is IMHO overrated because engine failures make up only a fraction of accidents. On the other hand, what is a problem is the lack of options at night because the next alternate is often close to an hour away.

RV14 wrote:

The point I’m trying to make is that IMHO engine failure is not the greatest danger of single pilot night flying

And which ones are more dangerous if you don’t mind sharing?

BTW there’s huge difference between the probability of particular event and the consequences of event happening. Anyone who ever did any risk analysis understands the difference.

which ones are more dangerous

the list would be long I’m afraid
1. inflight collision, bright city lights don’t make it any easier to spot an old spam can with the original style strobes and lights, to make things worst, everyone wants to make it just before airport closes, it’s specific to my home, but due to airspace structure believe it or not, gaggles form over entry points at 1500ft during those times.
2. got hit by a laser, yes it happened to me…
3. weather, especially icing at this time of year, the risk is not night time specific but night makes it an order of magnitude greater
etc

Emir wrote:

BTW there’s huge difference between the probability of particular event and the consequences of event happening

absolutely. The way I mitigate the consequences of the extremely unlikely event of engine failure:
1. Set the G box on the “nearest airport” page, from FL100 usually there is one within gliding range
2. Practice “visual approaches” again G terminology, to unlighted airfields until I can put the aircraft down at night with a satisfactory level of proficiency

According to an NTSB report there were 4000 accidents due to engine failure over a recent 5 year period. That’s about 2 per day.
As dirty Harry would say “Well, do you feel lucky?”
Funny thing about statistics, they can be read in all sorts of ways.

gallois wrote:

According to an NTSB report there were 4000 accidents due to engine failure over a recent 5 year period

How many fight hours during those 5 years?

And let’s look at it from a different perspective: how many pedestrians got run over by a car during recent 5 years in the land of the free?

We are taught to manage risk, flying is inherently risky

I never fly at night. Basically because there are so few places I can go and those that I could go to are regional international airports that are simply not affordable or don’t allow circuits etc. Plus then there is the hassle of getting back into base

Local airfields often haven’t got lights or those that do are restricted by local planning regulations. Or ‘insurance’ reasons which I suspect is complete rubbish

I feel this is the end product of the UK’s ban on PCL for decades.

Emir wrote:

And which ones are more dangerous if you don’t mind sharing?

CFIT. I know of at least two CFIT night VFR accidents in Sweden – both fatal – but none caused by engine failure. (One case where the pilot was flying in hilly terrain below the MSA and one where the pilot apparently (or so was the investigators’ best guess) under-read the altimeter by 1000 ft while flying over flat terrain.)

I was myself once unpleasantly close to coming to grief by the black hole effect during a night visual approach. I found myself at 300 ft AGL over water while still several miles from the runway. (Sure, it was IFR but in this respect no different from an approach under VFR.)

Even in the US I hadn’t bothered to stay night current for a while before I left. In summer it means staying up very late, and in winter it means braving the cold. In spring and autumn it’s OK but I just never got round to it.

I haven’t done any night flying at all since arriving in France three years ago. My local airport (LFMD) is closed at night, presumably for the nimbies. Few non-airline airports have runway lights anyway. Actually as long as I stay in France I don’t need to be night current, since I have an IR, but outside France I’d be on my FAA license so I’d have to be current.

I did quite enjoy night flying – one of my best flying memories is a sunset flight with my mother-in-law. It’s certainly risky compared to day flying, and I wouldn’t do it over difficult terrain.