The Federal Aviation Regulations (FAR) state that to maintain night currency (i.e., being able to take passengers during night flight), a pilot must make 3 landings to a full-stop every 90 days at night.  For this purpose, night is defined as 1 hour after official sunset to 1 hour before official sunrise.  Since we are getting closer to Summer, “night” is getting later and later.  This Saturday, night began at 9:21 PM.

I rented one of the club’s Cessna 152’s for the night currency.  Before it became real dark, around 8:00 PM, I took the plane up for some pattern work.  I practiced all the different types of landings and then made the 3 required landings after dark.  All in all, I made 8 takeoffs and landings.  The night was clear and cool with no wind at all.  It definitely made things easy.  I heard so many whippoorwills, they blended together like cicadas during a Summer day.

I was the absolute last person at the airport so I got to turn the lights off, lock the doors and enjoy the silence of the airport at night.