What's the latest you can carry passengers?

Three nights, one FAA

You'd think the FAA could settle on one definition of night. Nope -- it has three, and each one runs a different rule.

• Sunset to sunrise is when you need position lights (91.209(a)).
• End of evening civil twilight to the beginning of morning civil twilight is night under FAR 1.1. That's the night you log, and the one the night equipment rules in 91.205(c) use.
• One hour after sunset to one hour before sunrise is the window for carrying passengers (61.57(b)).

Every wrong answer on this quiz is one of the other two clocks. Most pilots remember that night matters. Fewer remember which night.

The passenger rule

61.57(b) says you can't act as pilot in command carrying passengers from one hour after sunset to one hour before sunrise, unless you've made three takeoffs and three landings to a full stop in that same window within the preceding 90 days.

Your currency has lapsed. With a 6:39 pm sunset, the window opens at 7:39 pm, so 7:38 pm is your last minute with passengers on board.

Why not 7:39?

At 7:39 the 61.57(b) window has already started. 7:38 is the last minute outside it.

Wheels down, not wheels up

The rule covers carrying passengers, not departing with them. Take off at 7:38 with friends in the back and you're still carrying them at 7:39. Plan the passenger leg so the wheels are on the ground by 7:38.

What about civil twilight?

Civil twilight ends when the sun is 6 degrees below the horizon. In much of the US that's roughly 30 minutes after sunset, but it moves around with the time of year and your latitude. Either way it ends well short of the one-hour mark, so it never decides this question.