Done With Night Requirements

I thought I had the solo night requirements for the commercial certificate met... But, there's a catch. It turns out that technically, flying at night, in VFR conditions, but under an IFR flight plan doesn't count towards the solo night requirements in "VFR conditions" for the commercial certificate. Why that is, I don't know, because most trips at night are navigated mostly by instruments, or at least strongly backed up by instruments anyway. So, technically I was missing 0.8 night hours, until tonight.

Clear skies, unlimited visibility - it probably won't be like that for much longer in the Northwest. So, I hopped into the airplane tonight, went up to Bellingham and back (what an easy cross country - just point the plane at Bellingham and go!) 4 landings (the controller at Bellingham didn't let me do a stop-and-go because of regional jet traffic behind me - and I found out about it after I touched down), and I've not only fulfilled the night commercial requirements, but I'm also current at night for another 90 days. That's going to come in handy as the days get shorter this time of year!