The Phobic Flyer achieves the UK Private Pilot Night Rating at Gloucestershire Airport
6I just needed 5 minutes to complete my 5 hours Night Rating Training and originally planned to included a night flight over the Severn Bridge. I couldn't take off until 16:35 as that's when 'Official Night' started, and the ATC at Gloucestershire Airport was short staffed which resulted in them closing early at 17:30. This meant that I wouldn't have had enough time to get down to the bridges and back again before they closed (not good). I ended up doing a quick 20 minute flight down to the bends in the River Severn and back.
I am so pleased to have completed my Night Rating at Bristol Aero Club (based at Gloucestershire Airport) completing the necessary training (thanks DC for the training!!). This consisted of five solo full stop landings, a landaway to Oxford and a Brize 'Zone Transit'. It's not mandatory to do the landaway and one dual cross-country flight would have been enough, but Oxford has great free coffee! Not bad for someone who used to be terrified of flying!!
The CAA's UK PPL Night Rating requirements for aeroplanes are:
"Theoretical knowledge instruction, at least 5 hours of flight time at night, including at least 3 hours of dual instruction, including at least 1 hour of cross-country navigation with at least one dual cross-country flight of at least 50 km (27 NM) and 5 solo take-offs and 5 solo full-stop landings. Before completing the training at night, LAPL holders shall have completed the basic instrument flight training required for the issue of the PPL."
https://www.caa.co.uk/General-aviation/Pilot-licences/Applications/Ratings/Night-rating-for-aeroplanes/