90 day night currency

[larrynimmo]

Not unlike many of you I have to do the three night take-offs and landings every 90 days...if it were just landing, I would have it made, as I do about 3 a month, but rarely do i do a take-off.  I find this to be perhaps more challenging than IMC flights for the pattern work and orientation...and last night the active runway had a 12 k tailwind at 200’agl...

last night I did my 3+3 and all went well, but I was most satisfied with my near perfect landings...I truly owe the smoothness of this task to the Landing Height System....and I just love it when I am just above the runway and it says 1....1...then I grease it easily on the pavement.   Prior to LHS I really struggled with my night time landings.

of all my high tech items on the plane, I take the greatest satisfaction with this add-on.

don’t get me wrong, when winds are gusting and buffeting or extreme crosswinds landing are challenging even with the guidance

[takair]

3 hours ago, larrynimmo said:

Not unlike many of you I have to do the three night take-offs and landings every 90 days...if it were just landing, I would have it made, as I do about 3 a month, but rarely do i do a take-off.  I find this to be perhaps more challenging than IMC flights for the pattern work and orientation...and last night the active runway had a 12 k tailwind at 200’agl...

last night I did my 3+3 and all went well, but I was most satisfied with my near perfect landings...I truly owe the smoothness of this task to the Landing Height System....and I just love it when I am just above the runway and it says 1....1...then I grease it easily on the pavement.   Prior to LHS I really struggled with my night time landings.

of all my high tech items on the plane, I take the greatest satisfaction with this add-on.

don’t get me wrong, when winds are gusting and buffeting or extreme crosswinds landing are challenging even with the guidance

Im curious, Are you often carrying passengers at night?  If it is just you, it seems that you can just do your normal landings and not worry about the formality of the take-offs.  Of course, if flying pax....then it is certainly required.  

[larrynimmo]

I have a condo at oc md....many times on  sundays I will fly back with my fiancée after dinner and I end up landing more than an hour after sunset....

almost never do I take off an hour after sunset....therefore I need to do currency flights.  And it would be convenient to just add this to the end of a flight, but typically I am too tired to tackle this add on task

[toto]

An option to consider is getting up early and doing your "night" takeoffs shortly before dawn. If you leave early and return late, you could get your currency over three weekends and six flights without having to do a single "currency" flight. 

[jlunseth]

Apart from the need for taking a true night flight, a good reason for keeping night currency up is taking a passenger on a flight and find yourself running a little late because of weather, or a fuel stop, or the passengers got to the airport late, or whatever. I find that "three in the pattern" takes under a half hour, no good reason not to do it. 

[gsxrpilot]

1 hour ago, toto said:

An option to consider is getting up early and doing your "night" takeoffs shortly before dawn. If you leave early and return late, you could get your currency over three weekends and six flights without having to do a single "currency" flight. 

I did this to satisfy my Commercial, 2 hour day/night cross country requirements. My brother and I took off at 3:30 am and flew 2 hours to breakfast (night cross country). Then flew home (day cross country).

[A64Pilot]

Back years ago in the Army since we reported aircraft readiness by the hour and if you broke it at 9PM but it wasn’t worked on until 8 AM you lost 11 hours on each breakage, so we stared flying very early in the morning and returning after sunrise, that way if it broke the mechanic could immediately start work, readiness rates improved.

‘But we found out the incidence of Inadvertent IMC was much higher, ground fog and apparently low ceilings are more likely around or just before dawn especially in Winter, so while it’s always best to be prepared for IMC if flying at night, it seems more likely in the early morning hours.  

[Hank]

I generally requalify for Nights in the fall, maintaining currency in winter is easy especially since I moved barely into Centrai time. Even in late June, it's pitch black out by 2030, where in WV I used to mow my yard until after 2100 . . . .