Night flying with basic med legal ?

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Am I legal to fly at night using basic med ? Before Basic Med I had a "not valid for night flying or color signal control" restriction on my medical for a color blindness. I have read our posts stating that it would not be legal because I'd be flying with a know disqualifying condition. On the other hand Basic Med uses restrictions found on my drivers license. I have no restrictions on my DL.
Here's the facts
I have the night flight restriction on my expired medical certificate
I have no restrictions on my drivers license
I current on Basic Med
I can distinguish the red and green of postion lights on the ground in daytime never had the opportunity to check at night in the air.
I can tell PAPI colors ( Day and night confirmed with an instrutor)
I can see and tell the difference between runway and taxiway lighting ( night confirmed with instrutor)
I was able to distinguish light gun signals from a tower ( day with instructor on the ground)

With these tests that I completed I feel comfortable self certifying myself to fly at night under the rules of Basic Med. The big question is what would the FAA say to my self certifying on this matter? At the end of the day we in this forum are voicing options and experiance. How would I safely get the for sure correct answer without exposing myself to the FAA? Finally for all of you screaming at your computers" why don't you just go get the OCVT test from my local FSDO". I started the process then covid hit and my procrastination. Honestly mostly my procrastination I let the invitation expire. With that being said I could start over again but why if Basic Med is enough to make me legal.
 
If you can do all that, why did you have the restriction on your medical?

You could have done a demonstrated performance to show you can see the light gun signals and tell the difference.
 
61.53(b) is vague, and there is no definitive answer to your question. Unless there’s an incident that causes the FAA to investigate you and your medical condition, it’s unlikely to come up. But if it did, the burden would be on you to provide evidence that demonstrated that you are safe to fly at night. Make no mistake, someone who has a night restriction and started the process to schedule with an inspector but never took the test might raise some eyebrows in hindsight. Did you document the successful light evaluation with your instructor? Obviously, getting a medical with a light gun test to remove the limitation would be the best way to remove question, but just simple self certification might not cut it if there’s evidence to the contrary…i.e. an incident at night (runway incursion?) plus a night restriction on your last FAA medical.
 
I think the answer is, there is nothing in BasicMed which precludes it. But like every other medical issue which might cause problems with an FAA medical but is not precluded by BasicMed, you are still subject to 61.53's (necessarily loose) prohibition on operating when one "knows or has reason to know of any medical condition that would make the person unable to operate the aircraft in a safe manner."
 
b) Operations that do not require a medical certificate. For operations provided for in § 61.23(b) of this part, a person shall not act as pilot in command, or in any other capacity as a required pilot flight crewmember, while that person knows or has reason to know of any medical condition that would make the person unable to operate the aircraft in a safe manner.

If you were to have a night accident, I believe the FAA’s position would be you knew or should have known you have a medical condition that made you unable to operate the aircraft in a safe manor at night.

The mitigating evidence might be additional night flight training with a demonstration you were safe at night as part of a flight review.
 
Clip4 said:
b) Operations that do not require a medical certificate. For operations provided for in § 61.23(b) of this part, a person shall not act as pilot in command, or in any other capacity as a required pilot flight crewmember, while that person knows or has reason to know of any medical condition that would make the person unable to operate the aircraft in a safe manner.

If you were to have a night accident, I believe the FAA’s position would be you knew or should have known you have a medical condition that made you unable to operate the aircraft in a safe manor at night.

The mitigating evidence might be additional night flight training with a demonstration you were safe at night as part of a flight review.
Click to expand...

agree
 
Here is the problem as I see it the FAA takes issue with lots of things. Some actually are "reason to know" and some, actually many, aren't. So in my mind it is up to me to decide if I believe I can complete the flight safely. In your situation what you might do is go up at night with an instructor and see how you do. I would want to do that anyway if you didn't have a lot of night flying time. If after that you feel comfortable with flying at night and you have no reason to know it is a problem as you have demonstrated your ability to do it safely then go for it.

Let's not make Basic Med a defacto 3rd or 4th class medical. It is not.
 
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