FlyingMonkey Posted August 5, 2015 Report Share Posted August 5, 2015 I waited yesterday until about 7pm to fly after work. Air was glassy smooth, temps were cooler. My buddy Brian and I patrolled the area around Bear Creek reservoir, on the lookout for enemy submarines. A beautiful evening. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrLupin Posted August 5, 2015 Report Share Posted August 5, 2015 Beautiful! What aircraft was the photo taken from? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FlyingMonkey Posted August 5, 2015 Author Report Share Posted August 5, 2015 Beautiful! What aircraft was the photo taken from? An Avid Flyer, the precursor to the Kitfox. It's a fun airplane, but top speed is only about 80mph. I can hang with him in the CTSW, but I'm at 0° flaps and about 3800rpm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Top Cat Posted August 5, 2015 Report Share Posted August 5, 2015 Yesterday evening flying my RV-12 SLSA over South Carolina. For some reason I can't make the picture bigger. Sorry it attached as a Thumbnail. So you have to click on the picture to get the full effect. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FlyingMonkey Posted August 5, 2015 Author Report Share Posted August 5, 2015 Nice sunset, Top Cat! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rtk Posted August 5, 2015 Report Share Posted August 5, 2015 I'm envious of both of you guys. The evening flight looks beautiful. Hoping to complete my SP Certificate in the few weeks and maybe do a sun-down flight over SoCal not too shortly thereafter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gbigs Posted August 5, 2015 Report Share Posted August 5, 2015 Be aware that no sport pilot is allowed in the air after Civil Twilight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FlyingMonkey Posted August 5, 2015 Author Report Share Posted August 5, 2015 OMG, I was five miles from the airport and the sun was still up...I barely made it back before I turned into a pumpkin. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Baker Posted August 5, 2015 Report Share Posted August 5, 2015 Be aware that no sport pilot is allowed in the air after Civil Twilight. Are you sure about that? I am pretty sure that a sport pilot can be in the air after civil twilight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anticept Posted August 5, 2015 Report Share Posted August 5, 2015 Are you sure about that? I am pretty sure that a sport pilot can be in the air after civil twilight. He's right. In Subpart J for sport pilots: 61.315 ( c ) You may not act as pilot in command of a light-sport aircraft: ... (5) At night. ... 14 CFR 1.1: Night means the time between the end of evening civil twilight and the beginning of morning civil twilight, as published in the Air Almanac, converted to local time. Now for the purposes of logging, it's 1 hour after. I got that one mixed up before too! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Baker Posted August 5, 2015 Report Share Posted August 5, 2015 He's right. In Subpart J for sport pilots: 61.315 ( c ) You may not act as pilot in command of a light-sport aircraft: ... (5) At night. ... 14 CFR 1.1: Night means the time between the end of evening civil twilight and the beginning of morning civil twilight, as published in the Air Almanac, converted to local time. Now for the purposes of logging, it's 1 hour after. I got that one mixed up before too! What you posted is correct, but that is quite different from what he said. A sport pilot can certainly be in the air at night, (after evening civil twilight) as long as they are not acting as PIC. They can also be in the air and act as PIC after civil twilight, as long as it was morning civil twilight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tom Baker Posted August 5, 2015 Report Share Posted August 5, 2015 Here is even a better question for you. Can a sport pilot who holds a third class medical and is transitioning to private pilot act a PIC (fly solo) at night like a student pilot can? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anticept Posted August 5, 2015 Report Share Posted August 5, 2015 Oh now you are being a little pedantic . And to answer your second question, provided there aren't any other issues (like a/c limitation), they are exercising their student pilot privileges, not their sport pilot privileges. So it comes with all the privileges and limitations of the student pilot certificate and required endorsements, including no passengers. A sport pilot transitioning to private pilot is just about the only dual pilot certificate status that I know of for the same category and class of aircraft. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gbigs Posted August 6, 2015 Report Share Posted August 6, 2015 Oh now you are being a little pedantic . And to answer your second question, provided there aren't any other issues (like a/c limitation), they are exercising their student pilot privileges, not their sport pilot privileges. So it comes with all the privileges and limitations of the student pilot certificate and required endorsements, including no passengers. A sport pilot transitioning to private pilot is just about the only dual pilot certificate status that I know of for the same category and class of aircraft. A student pilot for private license with a sport pilot license is not authorized to fly at night solo or with passenger in any aircraft. The private pilot instruction is dual cross country and dual takeoffs/landings at night. And no student pilot for private license with sport pilot license can fly certified aircraft solo without the 3rd class medical in hand and in the aircraft. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anticept Posted August 6, 2015 Report Share Posted August 6, 2015 Student pilots can fly at night. You will find many training organizations will not allow it due to the heightened risk of serious injury in the event of an emergency, except as necessary for training. A student can choose to exercise their student pilot privileges, OR their sport pilot privileges for a flight; the two do not mix. To draw a parallel, if someone has their fixed wing commercial, and rotary wing private, it will depend on what the flight is for which of these certificates they exercise. One could be paid to fly planes, but not for helis. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FlyingMonkey Posted August 6, 2015 Author Report Share Posted August 6, 2015 None of this applies to my daytime picture. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S3flyer Posted August 6, 2015 Report Share Posted August 6, 2015 Geez -- Civil twilight typically runs around 25 minutes after sunset depending on your lat/lon. Weather.com has a pretty cool graph of it: http://www.weather.com/weather/today/l/USGA0028:1:US. Note Atlanta civil twilight is 27 minutes after sunset which is more than enough time to admire the sunset and get back to the hangar and be legal as a sport pilot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FlyingMonkey Posted August 6, 2015 Author Report Share Posted August 6, 2015 Geez -- Civil twilight typically runs around 25 minutes after sunset depending on your lat/lon. Weather.com has a pretty cool graph of it: http://www.weather.com/weather/today/l/USGA0028:1:US. Note Atlanta civil twilight is 27 minutes after sunset which is more than enough time to admire the sunset and get back to the hangar and be legal as a sport pilot. Indeed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Top Cat Posted August 6, 2015 Report Share Posted August 6, 2015 Geez -- Civil twilight typically runs around 25 minutes after sunset depending on your lat/lon. Weather.com has a pretty cool graph of it: http://www.weather.com/weather/today/l/USGA0028:1:US. Note Atlanta civil twilight is 27 minutes after sunset which is more than enough time to admire the sunset and get back to the hangar and be legal as a sport pilot. I took the picture of the sunset at the end of a hot SC day. It was 98F so I waited till late afternoon to get to the hangar to take care of some chores, load some 93 non-ethanol mogas and give the airplane a wash. I timed the rinse to allow me some time to enjoy a short flight to dry off the airplane. On a wide downwind with about 15 mins to go till official sunset I looked out and snapped the pic on my iPhone. After a couple of hours of sweating, washing and pouring…I think the result was worth it. This was also the title of this thread. This is what sport flying is all about, if you ask me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gbigs Posted August 6, 2015 Report Share Posted August 6, 2015 The definition for 'night' for purposes of Sport Pilot limitation and for logging night hours by those authorized to fly them is: Sport Pilots must fly in daytime VFR. Or 'not' night. The FAR defines night as one hour after Civil Twilight. Evening civil twilight begins at sunset and ends when the geometric center of the sun reaches 6° below the horizon (civil dusk). Civil twilight can also be described as the limit at which twilight illumination is sufficient, under clear weather conditions, for terrestrial objects to be clearly distinguished; the horizon is clearly defined Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S3flyer Posted August 6, 2015 Report Share Posted August 6, 2015 Sport Pilots must fly in daytime VFR. Or 'not' night. The FAR defines night as one hour after Civil Twilight. Incorrect. FAR 1.1 defines "night": Night means the time between the end of evening civil twilight and the beginning of morning civil twilight, as published in the Air Almanac, converted to local time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anticept Posted August 6, 2015 Report Share Posted August 6, 2015 I thought I posted this stuff already But I love flying very late at night. I feel like a pioneer from the old days, whole sky to myself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FlyingMonkey Posted August 6, 2015 Author Report Share Posted August 6, 2015 The definition for 'night' for purposes of Sport Pilot limitation and for logging night hours by those authorized to fly them is: Sport Pilots must fly in daytime VFR. Or 'not' night. The FAR defines night as one hour after Civil Twilight. Evening civil twilight begins at sunset and ends when the geometric center of the sun reaches 6° below the horizon (civil dusk). Civil twilight can also be described as the limit at which twilight illumination is sufficient, under clear weather conditions, for terrestrial objects to be clearly distinguished; the horizon is clearly defined Nope. Night starts at the end of civil twilight, which is as you say when the geometric center of the sun is 6° below the horizon. Night begins at that exact moment, not an hour after that. So in reality it usually works out to 25-30 minutes after the sun drops below the horizon. Since I never have my solar protractor handy, 30 minutes after sunset is a good rule of thumb. I *wish* I could fly an hour after civil twilight! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IrishAl Posted August 6, 2015 Report Share Posted August 6, 2015 People here say that America is full of lawyers. This discussion takes that to new heights. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FastEddieB Posted August 6, 2015 Report Share Posted August 6, 2015 Please do not judge all Americans by one outlier! But I know what you mean. How can one look at a post on a pleasant evening flight and turn it into a discussion on Sport Pilot limitations and technical definitions of "night", complete with bad info, is beyond me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.