Questions Concerning Solo Night Take-off/Landing Requirements for Commercial

genkukov

genkukov

New Member
With sunset getting later and later and most towers closing within an hour of the 1-hour before sunset, I was curious on what FAR 61.129 4.ii is saying.

"5 hours in night VFR conditions with 10 takeoffs and 10 landings (with each landing involving a flight in the traffic pattern) at an airport with an operating control tower."

Now with the Night currency being 1 hour after civil twilight and landings to a full stop, do these landings need to be to a full stop? Also, do these landings need to be past the 1 hour of civil twilight? Or can these landings simply be as soon as the sun sets and not have to be stop and goes? I do understand the 10 TO/L in the pattern, but am just curious if I need to fulfill the night currency definition of a landing to get these 10 landings+takeoffs.
-Kukov

(if this has been posted before, I did do a search and didn't find anything, sorry if I missed a previous post.)
 
Technically, they don't need to be 1 hour after sunset nor to a full stop. The night passenger-carrying currency regulation only applies to, well, landings that are to be counted toward night passenger-carying currency. 61.129(4) says neither.

When the FAR wants a full stop, it says so. Part 61 uses the phrase 27 times. Compare, for example, 61.109(b)(2) which specifies "full stop" for the student pilot night dual cross country landings.

Same for night. Unless it says somehting different, like 61.57 does, night means "Night means the time between the end of evening civil twilight and the beginning of morning civil twilight, as published in the American Air Almanac, converted to local time." (FAR 1.1)
 
I kinda thought that was the case, but wasn't sure. Well, time to start a flyin'. Thanks for the help.
-Kukov
 
Mark, I hope you read that line about "27 times" somewhere and didn't just know that off the top of your head from being that familiar with the FARs.
 
Timbuff10 said:
Mark, I hope you read that line about "27 times" somewhere and didn't just know that off the top of your head from being that familiar with the FARs.
Click to expand...

He probably read it off his computer screen after doing a search via the Summit Aviation CD-ROM.
 
Anyone have a link for the American Air Almanac? If you take off before sunset, and land well after dark, where do you find the American Air Almanac so you know how much night time to log vs. day? Do most pilots just estimate? I couldn't find one using google and I've never seen or even heard of a pilot owning a hard copy.
 
I think most people just estimate... it's typically about half an hour after sunset that the end of evening civil twilight occurs. Also, type in your airport at Airnav.com, then scroll down about half way- on the right hand side it shows the times for sunset, sunrise, evening civil twilight and morning civil twilight...
 
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