Flying off into the sunset?

My wife recently expressed interest in going for another sunset flight. Not being one to deny my wife, especially when it involves flying, I decided it was time to get night current again.

What does this mean? It means I need to go out to the airport and make at least 3 landings - full-stop (not a simple touch and go) - after around 7:15pm (one hour after sunset). It's been a while since our last night flight (Dec 2004) and the max you can go while still being considered current is 90 days.

Since I am renting airplanes with which I have little experience, I started wondering if they were legal for night flight. So I decided it was a good time to triple-check the FAA regs (FARs) on the requirements for night flight (in good weather). Here they are for good measure (FAR 91.205):
  • Position lights.
  • An anti-collision light.
  • If the aircraft is operated for hire, one electric landing light.
  • An adequate source of electrical energy for all installed electrical and radio equipment.
  • One spare set of fuses, or three spare fuses of each kind required, that are accessible to the pilot in flight.
I will be sure to check for those (and all the other standard requirements) tomorrow night when I hope to get current again. At least the weather looks good in ForeFlight Desktop - maybe a little crosswind but no big deal. I will hope the TAF is accurate.

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