For the 100nm 2hr dual commercial cross country requirement, the reg. says that it has to be night VFR conditions. If the weather is clear and I don't wear a hood, would it still be legal if I filed an IFR flight plan to get there?

 

I did it, just as a safety factor, you can never trust the weather here in Florida. If your VMC all the way it shouldn't matter.

 

Technically legal, although the intent is to use pilotage as well as instrument nav. If you're just on radials or vectors you're missing the training value. Obviously don't make any mention of IFR, IMC, or hood time for that flight in your logbook.

I cannot guarantee that a rogue fed would not have a different opinion, so I wouldn't advertise the fact. I think you would win in the long run, but best not to fight the battle at all.

 

great! thanks guys, pilotage at night in the middle of texas can be tough, theres not too much to see!

 

Just wait a month:

(iii) One 2-hour cross country flight in a single engine airplane in daytime conditions that consists of a total straight-line distance of more than 100 nautical miles from the original point of departure;
(iv) One 2-hour cross country flight in a single engine airplane in nighttime conditions that consists of a total straight-line distance of more than 100 nautical miles from the original point of departure;

Actually, it's never been an issue. While there isn't a FAR 1 def of VFR conditions, there is of IFR conditions:

"IFR conditions means weather conditions below the minimum for flight under visual flight rules"

So it's reasonable to say that VFR conditions are weather conditions above the minimum for flight under VFR. It says nothing about the rules the flight operates under. You can track a VOR while flying under VFR, it doesn't have to be pilotage.

 

God forbid you should do something that's tough while training for a job where you hold other people's live in your hands!

Legal or not, there's the right way to do it and the easy way to do it. The whole point of training is to put you in "tough" situations so that when you have 3 passengers on board your single engine plane and you have an electrical failure, you can find your way back home safely. May as well do it once under the umbrella of your CFI before it happens with 3 other people freaking out.

This is kind of like sending a student out for a solo x-country with a GPS. Every pilot should be able to navigate using pilotage and dead reckoning ONLY. If you can follow a pink line on a screen, it shouldn't be that much more difficult to follow a road, or fly a heading and read a clock.

Take the time to gain more tools and THEN flying becomes easy because you have the right tools for the right situations. Pneumatic tools are really nice when you're doing a project, but when your compressor breaks, you better have some hand tools to get the job done.

 

safety factor? You AND a CFI can't navigate if the weather comes down a bit? Can't file in air if you run into something you absolutely can't do VFR?

This is a serious question because I know that somewhere in Florida is an aircraft that is VFR only: if you rent that plane to take your girlfriend on a flight to dinner, what are you going to do if a cloud gets in your way? Tell your girlfriend, "Sorry, but we gotta turn around".