I am first going to start by asking a question. Is the Tecnam night flight equipped? Does it have enough instrumentation for the instrument work? Does it have any electronic navigation (GPS)? If the answer is yes to the above there is no need to switch airplanes.foresterpoole wrote:With all that said, now I've got a bit of a conundrum. It appears I've got my oral exam for private A-OK. My hours are such that I'm within striking distance of a private, all I would need would be night flying (3 hours), instrument training (3 hours), 3 hours of solo X-Country and 1 hour of X-country training (I already flew the Sport version), and the 3 takeoffs and landings at a towered airport which I wanted anyway. My total hours would be a little over the minimum for private, but not more than 65 total. I would have to get a medical, and switch back to a 172 (I flew a few hours when I first started in one) which could burn a few hours as well. What is the groups thoughts, should I just finish out sport or just spend the extra and go for private????
Lets talk about the required hours.
You should have some instrument training already. It is required for student cross country for private pilot and sport pilots flying an airplane with a Vh greater than 87kts. Any instrument training you have had counts towards the 3 hours.
Make the best use of your flight time. The 1 hour of cross country training needs to be at night anyway, so you are knocking out 2 things at once. You can knock out some instrument at the same time. You could do another hour of instrument training at night, I like doing the instrument training at night anyway. When you do the night cross country make it to a towered airport. When you do your solo cross country also go to an airport with a tower, and do your 3 take offs and landings. The time spent doing them will also count as cross country time if it is included in the trip.
By combining you can break down the hours you have listed to around 7 or 8
Oh, you will also have to take the private pilot knowledge test.