I think of lot of the time will depend on the cross country flight that you choose.
For me, at the time, we weren’t allowed to leave a control zone under VFR at night. So the 1.5 hour “cross country” had to be conducted entirely with in the CTR (10nm radius centred on the airport). So a lot of criss crossing the zone! So the cross country was 1.5 hours and no more. So that left 3.5 hours for landings which was more than enough.
It probably also helps how familiar you are with the aircraft. I probably had 300+ hours on the aircraft when doing the night qualification, so it I knew it well, and it was only a transition to night. In Fabian’s case he appears to be swapping between different aircraft, which will obviously add to the training time quite significantly.
My night rating took something like 5-10 hours. It was quite funny… the instructor and I were flying along and he asked me what is that town below?. I said I don’t know; it could be Burgess Hill or Haywards Heath. He said he had no idea either. He was a ~20,000hr ATP. It was a lesson that night flight is 100% IFR and those who think otherwise are just flying in a familiar area, usually at sunset plus 5 minutes when you can still see stuff out of the window 
I took me 8:10 hours and 43 landings in 1984. I don’t recall having any particular problems — that’s just the time it took. There was no regulatory minimum in Sweden at that time, but the recommended training plan called for 8 hours of flight. A lot of it was spent on navigation exercises. There was, of course, no GPS…
I did my night rating in 10 hours back in 1997 or so. Back then that was what was required by the Norwegian regulations. I do not remember whether the couple of hours spent on BATD were included in the 10 hours or not. Must check my logbook.
@Fabian : Really excellent pictures, thank you!
Concerning flight time and number of landings for the night qualification, I must have been on the other extreme. We did it in one night (also in a C172/G1000) back in 2009. 2’50’’ block time (2’15’’ by night) from LOAN to a small field in eastern Hungary, 23 landings within 1’40’’ there, 2’10’’ back to LOWW and landing around midnight. The next morning, we came back to retrieve the aircraft. One of my more exhausting flying days 
…
The trouble with making proper use of the night rating is that hardly any field (at least here in Austria) stays open after sunset. Eg. in LOAN, they have 1 (!) evening with a few additional flying hours, and that’s Wednesday – the worst time of the week to go flying for me and many others. Furthermore, the surcharges on the already high landing fees are eyewatering.
So if you are not based on one of our international airports, the night rating is of little practical use. A real pitty, because flying in the night is IMHO one of the most beautiful aviation experiences.
Brilliant pics. I do like the use of a tripod inside the plane
Great photos @fabian thanks for sharing. The oil refinery looks amazing from the air. It’s was pretty spectacular to drive past a few weeks ago at night. I guess the night rating is a little bit more involved than the UK? 5hours and 5 solo full stop landings.
Well, when I was regularly instructing PPLs at a flying school, I usually managed to time the training precisely so as to complete their night training in exactly 5 hours. It just requires a bit of clever planning, and flight schools or instructors who are not able or not willing to do the basic maths behind that are IMHO not doing their job properly (again: unless the student clearly says he doesn’t mind doing a couple more hours).
On the “proficiency” side, there was usually never a problem to complete the training in 5 hours, because, after all, night landings, at least with a working landing light, are not really difficult. I think the average numbers of landings was usually about 25.
Thanks! :)
I would say its a combination of things. For our ATO and airfield its a rather common time from what I’ve heard. I would have said I would have been ready for the solos one flight earlier. We also have a rather tight traffic pattern where you essentially have to turn downwind to final in one turn and descend onto the glide path with 400ft left to go, its quite easier in the other direction where you have plenty of room to get aligned with the runway and onto the glide path. I also had to split up the solos because of the opening hours of our field (open till 20:30 local time, but traffic patterns on weekends only till 20:00lcl and they close the hangars and field at 20:30:00). And I also don’t have that many hours yet (about 140h TT).
My colleague took even an hour longer. Whats your experience with how long it takes?
Nice video and photos. Congrats on the new rating. Out of interest: Why did it take so many hours (possibly in part due to the aborted cross country)? And why so many Landings? Some poor planning by the flying school? Or did you say you didn’t mind fliyng a bit more than the minimum?
