A night rating will vastly improve your ability to fly on instruments.

This add-on for your Private Pilot Licence or Commercial Pilot Licence is a new and exciting challenge. Your night rating will vastly improve your ability to fly on instruments whilst letting you observe the beauty of the country at night flying under VFR.

With the introduction of ORS4 No.1477, we are allowed to fly VFR and Special VFR at night in the United Kingdom. So for stunning views such as the ones shown on this page, call or email us to book yourself in.

We recommend booking your night rating course when daylight saving time ends, between October and March, even though the weather tends to be a little more temperamental.

Night Rating Requirements

​To begin a night rating course, you must have accumulated 100 hours of flight time since the issue of your helicopter licence. Included in this must be 60 hours of pilot in command time and 20 hours of cross-country flight. The training course as defined below shall then be completed within a period of 6 months.

We provide a training course with 5 hours of theoretical knowledge instruction before completing 10 hours of simulated instrument flying in a helicopter with you. Up to 5 hours may be flown in the simulator. Once this phase has been completed, we finish off with 5 hours of flying at night which includes:

• At least 3 hours of dual flight instruction.
• At least 1 hour of cross-country navigation.
• 5 solo night circuits.

If you already hold (or have previously held) a fixed-wing or helicopter Instrument Rating, you will receive 5 hours of credit towards the simulated instrument time.

For recency, the Civil Aviation Authority stipulates that at least 1 take-off and landing (to 500ft) should have been completed within 90 days before passengers are carried. We would insist that this circuit is done with one of our instructors to ensure your safety and refresh your understanding.

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