I agree with Rick, other than that it seems easier for students at night cause they tend to scan better with less outside distractions, and usually the air is nice and smooth to boot. I am a bit uncertain about the solo stalls at night though, not so sure thats a great idea. A 20 hour student would perhaps have some difficulty at night with lack of outside reference and not yet comfortable with instrument flight.

My school used to do them at night until a DA-20 had an engine failure during a stall (day time). They had to land in a field. So the president banned stalls at night for that reason. Obviously an engine failure can occur at any time, so I don't see the big deal. I always did them for my training and my students training.

During flight training with a freight company, we did all the maneuvers in the middle of the night, and in IMC (slow flight, stalls, steep turns, engine failures, what have you). Continue to teach those things at night. If anything, it will only make whoever is in the plane that much better.

*all instrument work should be done at night, in my opinion.

I'm in complete agreement. This is an instrument student. It doesn't matter if it's day/night, they are flying by the dials(or glass). Encourage them that this will enhance their skills, and you wouldn't be doing it if it wouldn't be a challenge, and at the same time still safe. Good luck

I see no problems with stalls at night or IMC.

I see big problems with inadvertent spin entries at night or in IMC, especially since some gyros will tumble in a spin.

I believe that many schools prohibitions on night stall practice are due to concerns that a hamhanded student will manage to start a spin.

Joe

Sounds like this student just needs a calm discussion about it, then starting with very gentle stalls.
I've done them as a CFI, but of course I did them higher and was a little more careful about them.

I am going with tsd685 on this one. Further, the student might have had a bad experience with some stalls that scared him from the maneuver. A calm but firm discussion to identify the issue with "stalls being dangerous" might be in order.

Good thing he isn't a rotor pilot. Night auto-rotations will pucker even the most seasoned of pilots.

Well I'm glad we all agreed. This student had a lot of other things going on i.e. no confidence in themselves etc etc. I had recently taken them on and had heard bad things about previous instructors. It definitely was a classic case of "difficult student". What irked me was that they actually called the flight school owner the next day to complain that I was dangerous and shouldn't teach. The owner simply laughed and basically said "tough **** deal with it" in a more customer friendly way.

Anyways the student met with me yesterday and told me the 101 reasons why stalls are dangerous and all the people she knows that said she wouldn't do them. I told her my reasoning which is similar to everyone's here. That was that, she didn't like it and actually left. If she comes around again, it'll be interesting to see.

This says a lot to me about the student. What I recommend is that you sit down and offer a lesson on stalls. Show her that they aren't the devil and that a stall is nothing more than the aircraft no longer creating enough lift to maintain altitude.

Here's what I suggest. Sit for about 30 minutes and reteach the aerodynamics of the stall. Take her up in the plane and climb to a very safe altitude. Reinforce that stalls aren't a terrible thing.

Start with power off stalls and simply transition from stable state slow flight to a straight ahead full stall. HOLD THE STALL. The aircraft will simply rock back and forth gently (like a floating leaf) and you will need to make minor adjustments with the rudder. Show her that in a stall, the airplane is stil generating lift (otherwise you'd be dropping like a brick instead of doing a slow descent at about 300-400FPM). Let her fly the "floating leaf" and then recover to straight and level flight after 30-45 seconds of stalling.

Then do a few power off FULL stalls while in turns, followed by transition into power on imminent stalls, followed by full power on stalls.

My guess is that her previous instructor never taught the fundamentals and why stalls aren't inherently dangerous when properly executed. (Heck- I've taken two transport category aircraft to stick push or full stall.)

Build up her confidence and comfort, then go do them at night.

I never did stalls at night during my training in KORL. I think it depends where you are. In TLH, we have 2 practice areas - one is completely dark at night with no references and the other is near the coast with a good view of the city if you turn around.

As long as you have references, you should be good to go. I don't like doing stalls at night if I can't see the horizon or any references of the ground. You need to know which way to go if your student flips the plane. My general rule is that if a student pilot can't do stalls during the day, I won't do stalls with him/her at night. Now if you have someone who has their private certificate (or above), sure, go do stalls at night.

I always teach turning stalls during IFR training under the hood. I love doing 30 bank stalls with the student under the hood, it always freaks them out. And if your student is under the hood, it doesn't matter if it is day or night outside as long as the CFI can see some references to prevent/recover from a spin entry.