Including one dual cross country night flight

"Night means 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." (3 Definitions of nitght time.)

 Dual flight training minimum in any aircraft at least 20 hrs including:

•  3 hrs dual night time in a single engine airplane
• Including one dual cross country night flight over 100 nm

I chose Fort Myers, Page Field because of the distance (89nm) and the complexity of the airspace. The student would need to contact Tampa Departure, get handed over to Miami Center, do the transition to Fort Myers Approach and finally switch to Page Tower and Ground Control. Couple that with changing squawk codes and altimeter settings would be a great exercise in the dark. Plus, its a beautiful trip down Florida's western peninsula.

We departed about 6:00pm (L) from KVDF, the AOPA flight planner said it would take about 45 minutes down (about 55 minutes back). Weather was perfect with clear crisp air (14°C). We briefly leveled off at 2500' to stay below the Class B, then climbed to our cruising altitude of 3500' for the remainder of the flight. Higher is better when flying at night. It gives just a little more time to handle any emergency. We switched to Fort Myers Approach just past Punta Gorda and was soon asked to descend below 2500' to stay clear of the Class C. We leveled at 1800' and searched for the runway environment.

I always start with the green and white beacon. The city lights make the runway lights difficult to spot but once I see that beacon I can usually orient myself. Tower cleared us to land on RWY5.

Video Notes: Radio 2