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AviationNight operations
The examiner checks that you are ready to fly at night: how your eyes work in the dark, the airport and airplane lighting, the equipment you need, navigation and orientation, night taxi, reading other traffic by its lights and the illusions of the night. It is Task A of Area XI, Night Operations, in the FAA Private Pilot Airman Certification Standards, the checkride every private pilot flies.
Free to startThe steps
- Explain the physiology of vision at night and the visual illusions of night flight.
- Explain the lighting that identifies airports, runways, taxiways and obstructions, and pilot-controlled lighting.
- Explain the airplane equipment and lighting required at night and the personal equipment you need.
- Explain night orientation, navigation and chart reading, and how to keep night vision.
- Explain night taxi operations and how to read the position and direction of other traffic from its position lights.
Safety rules that stop the station
- The sheet has no flight skills for this task: the examiner checks your knowledge and risk management with questions.
- Failing to exercise risk management is unsatisfactory.
- If you do not use sound aeronautical decision-making, including single-pilot resource management, the examiner marks the task as failed.
To pass
- Night vision, lighting, equipment, navigation, taxi and traffic lights explained correctly, with the risks of the night.
- Know the risks of collision, distractions, visual illusions and night adaptation in every phase of flight, runway incursion, night currency versus proficiency, night weather and inoperative equipment.
- Missing the standard on this task fails the task and its area of operation.
Official source
Federal · FAA Private Pilot ACS
Private Pilot for Airplane Category Airman Certification Standards (FAA-S-ACS-6C)
The FAA publishes the Private Pilot Airman Certification Standards free: every task of the checkride with its knowledge, risks and tolerances.
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