FAA night: logging night time vs night currency vs lights

Three definitions in three rules

14 CFR 1.1 defines night as "the time between the end of evening civil twilight and the beginning of morning civil twilight, as published in the Air Almanac, converted to local time." The US Naval Observatory defines civil twilight as ending in the evening "when the center of the Sun is geometrically 6 degrees below the horizon". This is the night you log under 61.51(b)(3)(i), and the night behind the night-hour requirements for certificates.

61.57(b)(1) uses a darker window for carrying people at night. To act as pilot in command of an aircraft carrying persons "during the period beginning 1 hour after sunset and ending 1 hour before sunrise", you need, within the preceding 90 days, "at least three takeoffs and three landings to a full stop during the period beginning 1 hour after sunset and ending 1 hour before sunrise". The takeoffs have to fall inside the window as well as the landings. The full currency rule is in our 61.57 guide.

91.209(a) uses a third: no person may, "During the period from sunset to sunrise", operate an aircraft unless it "has lighted position lights". In Alaska the period is instead when "a prominent unlighted object cannot be seen from a distance of 3 statute miles or the sun is more than 6 degrees below the horizon".

Worked example: an evening at Centennial, Colorado

The US Naval Observatory gives these times for Centennial Airport (KAPA) on Sunday 15 November 2026, Mountain Standard Time: sunset 16:44, end of civil twilight 17:13. One hour after sunset is 17:44. Position lights go on at 16:44, logged night starts at 17:13, and currency takeoffs and landings start at 17:44.

Say you take off at 16:35 for circuits. A full-stop landing at 17:25 gives you 12 minutes of night time (0.2 in tenths) and happens at night as 1.1 defines it, but it does not count for 61.57(b). A takeoff at 17:35 followed by a full stop at 17:55 gives you a currency landing but no currency takeoff, because the takeoff is 9 minutes early. A takeoff at 17:50 and a full stop at 18:05 count as one takeoff and one landing toward the three.

Mornings run the other way. That day civil twilight began at 06:15 and the sun rose at 06:44, so the currency window closed at 05:44. A takeoff at 05:30 counts for currency, while a full-stop landing at 06:00 does not. That landing is still logged night, which runs to 06:15, and the position lights stay on until 06:44.

High latitudes in summer

Near midsummer at high latitude the three nights come apart. At Fairbanks, Alaska on 21 June 2026 the USNO gives sunset at 00:47 and sunrise at 02:59 Alaska Daylight Time, and the sun stays above the civil twilight limit all night. Under 1.1 there is no night to log, while the 61.57(b) window runs for 12 minutes, from 01:47 to 01:59.

Position lights in Alaska follow the Alaska wording of 91.209(a), the 3-statute-mile visibility test or the sun more than 6 degrees below the horizon, rather than sunset. At lower latitudes the gap between sunset and the end of civil twilight is short, 29 minutes at Centennial in the example, while the currency window always opens a full hour after sunset.

Which rules use which night

1.1 applies "As used in this chapter, unless the context requires otherwise", so a rule that says night without its own window uses civil twilight. That covers the 3 hours of night flight training with "10 takeoffs and 10 landings to a full stop" for a private pilot certificate (61.109(a)(2)) and the "100 hours of night flight time" for an airline transport pilot certificate (61.159(a)(2)).

Rules that need the darker period write it out, as 61.57(b) does and as 61.1 does for a night vision goggle operation, defined as the part of a flight "from 1 hour after sunset to 1 hour before sunrise". Where your operator's procedures set a stricter window, they apply on top of the regulation.