What is night?

From Part 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.

Other regs have different criteria, but AFAIK none of those regs refer to those criteria as “night.”
 
MauleSkinner said:
From Part 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.

Other regs have different criteria, but AFAIK none of those regs refer to those criteria as “night.”
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Yep. There’s really only one definition of “night” when that word is used in the substantive text of an FAA regulation.
 
I was just talking about at work the other day. Med crew thought night was sunset to sunrise. Nope, that’s position lights. Then I told them there’s a different requirement for night currency to fly pax. We even have a different requirement for NVG currency. Then restrictions for aided vs unaided, etc, etc. Next month is check ride month so I’ll have to regurgitate all that mess all over again. :(
 
There are a number of iOS apps that will display the start/end of day, civil twilight and night based on your location.
 
it's when sht gets real up in here
 
When the Sandman comes? You know, after light exits? Not gonna be able to get that out of my head the rest of the night…
 
If it’s gonna get dark soon, turn your lights on. If it’s dark, log it. But you can’t bring someone along unless you did some landings when it was really dark.
 
Y'know, my logbook just has a column for "date," not "time." And there's a column for "night." So for my personal logging purposes, night is what I say it is, and challenging that after the fact would be tough. If you're a CFI conducting night training flights, pay attention to civil twilight because there will likely be a record of the lesson booking time and maybe the takeoff and landing times. Otherwise,.....
 
Half Fast said:
Y'know, my logbook just has a column for "date," not "time." And there's a column for "night." So for my personal logging purposes, night is what I say it is, and challenging that after the fact would be tough.
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Since the advent of ADSB, maybe it wouldn't be as hard to "challenge after the fact" as it was 20 years ago.

Probably not likely during a job interview, but if the FAA or an insurance company ever really wanted to dig in, nowadays they probably could.
 
Half Fast said:
Y'know, my logbook just has a column for "date," not "time." And there's a column for "night." So for my personal logging purposes, night is what I say it is, and challenging that after the fact would be tough. If you're a CFI conducting night training flights, pay attention to civil twilight because there will likely be a record of the lesson booking time and maybe the takeoff and landing times. Otherwise,.....
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ADSB and Flight Aware. :D
 
Depends on context...here ya go:

Night Flying Safety

remember the three different time periods we need to be aware of:
• Sunset to sunrise for having the lights turned on.
• That period of time between the end of evening civil twilight and the beginning of morning civil twilight for logging our flight as “night.”
• One hour after sunset to one hour before sunrise for logging takeoffs and landings for recent experience currency.

https://www.faa.gov/sites/faa.gov/files/2022-01/NovDec2008.pdf

So the answer to your question is B which is 30 min before sunrise/30 min after sunset.
 
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It’s when my flightbook says I can log the time as night.
 
The part 1 definition is near and dear to my heart. It was wrong until I made a petition for rulemaking to change it to reference a publication that actually existed.
 
Gilbert Buettner said:
Where did you find "30 min?" Civil twilight varies quite a bit.
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Wellll, technically you are correct, but practically for most aviators in the U.S. except Alaska, @Shawn is correct enough. I just checked, and it looks like civil twilight varies from a low of about 23 minutes before/after sunset in Hawaii to a high of about 40 minutes in the northern CONUS throughout the year. So "30 minutes" is a pretty good estimate for most of the CONUS.

In Alaska, of course, all bets are off. Today in Anchorage it's about 1:23, while in Fairbanks there is no civil twilight.
 
Gilbert Buettner said:
Where did you find "30 min?" Civil twilight varies quite a bit.
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30 min is a good aproximation for most of the US latitudes. It's actually the point when the sun is 6 degrees below the horizon.
 
MauleSkinner said:
Other regs have different criteria, but AFAIK none of those regs refer to those criteria as “night.”
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You're almost right.

61.57 (b) is entitled NIGHT TAKEOFF AND LANDING EXPERIENCE but then describes the interval as an hour after sunset.
91.209 indeed describes a time from sunset to sunrise without calling it night.
135.247 describes a time like 61.57 but doesn't call it night either.

Amusingly 135.247 got the name of the publication correct, where as 1.1 had it in error.
 
Lindberg said:
What do you mean you're not part 61?

BTW, this thread has proved something about POA.
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I'm part 91, not 61. I've read of different definitions based on part...
 
asicer said:
Are you sure? Part 61 is for pilots and part 91 is for operations. I'm part 61 and my flight is part 91.
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Part 61 was mentioned in the first post with the intent of indicating it wasn't a training flight as I've read different definitions of night apply in that setting.
 
asicer said:
Are you sure? Part 61 is for pilots and part 91 is for operations. I'm part 61 and my flight is part 91.
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@FORANE asked about a SIAP being marked NA at night. That is neither addressed in 61.57 nor in 91.209. It’s the 1.1 definition, see below for why that is.
FORANE said:
Part 61 was mentioned in the first post with the intent of indicating it wasn't a training flight as I've read different definitions of night apply in that setting.
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Blatanly plagairizng [mention]midlifeflyer [/mention]

“For carrying passengers at “night,” §61.57(b) requires three takeoffs and landings to a full stop “during the period beginning 1 hour after sunset and ending 1 hour before sunrise.” Another regulation, §91.209(a), requires us to turn on our position lights “from sunset to sunrise.” But with those two exceptions, when the FAA says “night” they’re referencing the definition in §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”. That’s the one to use when an approach is “NA at Night.”


www.ifr-magazine.com

NA At Night - IFR Magazine

You planned this getaway weekend to Wise County, Virginia months ago. A cabin is ready. A rental car awaits you when you land at Lonesome Pine airport (KLNP). It’s good to be instrument rated. The reported ceilings are comfortably high at 1500 AGL. It’s nice to have the protection of an...
www.ifr-magazine.com www.ifr-magazine.com
 
FORANE said:
Part 61 was mentioned in the first post with the intent of indicating it wasn't a training flight as I've read different definitions of night apply in that setting.
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Well, that's where the confusion comes in. I think you used the wrong verb in post #28
 
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