Under the Aero Alliance flying school we see our first Student to begin training under night conditions. Visit back for updates on his progress!  Below are some exerts (with his permission) from his personal blog. Enjoy:

"Tonight I started my night rating.  I'm constantly in a position to want to learn as much as I can to make me a better pilot.  I think the slight transition to flying on instruments partially will help me do this.

Fig 1.0 - The town of Worthing at Night

I had an hours brief with Stuart who took me through the fundamentals, the first thing being outline the towns on the map in permanent marker, why? Well in the sky when you're using red lights to see you cannot see the detail on the map very easy!

Fig 1.1 - Worthing pier in the left hand side of the photo

The first thing is that the course will take five hours, with a couple of navigation legs, some circuits, a couple of solo rides and anything else in the syllabus which we will come on to.To fly at night you can fly under two privaledges, SVFR (special VFR) and IFR.  Now, IFR is perfectly ok due to not being in IMC, it's two different thing.  IFRules, IMConditions.  The conditions were VMC with a cloudbase of 3000 feet and wind 6 knots down the runway...perfect.

So planning an IFR flight under ANO 29 goes like this:

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- Anything less than 3000 feet will use the quadrantial rule

- Planning a flight on the map will be MSA + 1000 feet with 5nm each side of your track

- Max 10 knot crosswind

- To carry passengers I need to have done one night takeoff and landing in the last 30 days

One thing, Stuart stated that weather minima's are brought down for night flying, for example it's so much harder to land in a crosswind at night as there are no visual clues, only the runway lights to gauge.

Try to do the fuel and walkaround in the light, especially in icing conditions.  Make sure the ice has been cleared off all surfaces before continuing, also take extra care with water in the fuel as when draining it's harder to see.

There are visual illusions which can and will take place, you need to trust your instruments.  Not your senses as they will be wrong (unless your suction gauge is reading 0!).  Auto Kinesis is an interesting read which can be found on the internet.

The picture when you come to flare will look different.  The main difference is that the only clue we will have is looking down the end of the runway you will see the start of the lights merge together, when you see that it's time to level out the flight, throttle off, and start to flare.  This will touch down perfect every time - I'm assured!

Every obsticle over 300 feet will have a steady red light.  Every 300 feet after the first light will be another red light.  A 1000ft mast will have 3 sets of lights running up. Very handy feature to gauge from the height on the map - Am I at heathfield? Does the mast have 3 lights, yes then yes!

Taxy very slow.  Taxiing at night will always appear to be travelling slower than you really are, this is because you will be only looking at the lines on the taxyway lit by the landing light, and not in your peripheral vision (remember this is black and white, not the colour reading part of the eye).

Remember the picture and perspective on takeoff, this is how it should land when you touch the tarmac!"