Night flying presents enough of an additional challenge to us pilots that the FAA maintains certain requirements for night-specific training for the Private and Commercial Pilot Certificates and for night flying currency in order to carry passengers. In order to be safe at night, panel and cockpit lighting is important as it ensures that you can see critical information such as airspeed, attitude and altitude.
If you are fortunate enough to have a glass-panel-equipped airplane, this may not be as much of a concern. But even if you’re flying with backlit glass, you need to have good lighting in the cockpit in order to see what you have written or are jotting down on your notepad. And just imagine trying to find eyeglasses after dropping them in a pitch-black cockpit.
