Do we need an IFR certified aircraft to fly IFR en EASA land?

I think I answered this somewhere, it seems you need “IFR in POH” and some equipment & maintenance under NCO but I could be wrong, as always what is legal is barely minimal and may not be very safe…

Depends on what you need “just legal for IFR” or “way convenient IFR”, I can answer the 1st one, but remember what is legal is not necessary safe
For the latter you may get a whole spectrum of advice depending on your mission, skill and budget

Also without going into local European countries requirements that amounts more to myths (e.g. dual altimeter, dual radio, autopilots, dual VORs…) rather than actual requirements, I am assuming you will be operating under EASA Part-NCO (e.g. Part91 US style), so just have a good read of the Part-NCO document and make your mind, one has to read it at least once in his whole life ;)

M20E is EASA aircraft and can falls under Part-NCO ops, so does the type certificate/data sheet/AFM allow IFR? yes and I think Hank got you that an answer
If in doubt check Section 4 “Operating limitations” of your aircraft under weather/flight rules operations and also look MEL/CDL lists for IFR

Now on flying equipments under NCO.125, for IFR the min is watch/clock, ASI + PT heat, COMPASS, 1 ALT, VSI, TXB, AI, DG and OAT (Pitot & Static needs test every 2 years), also Mach number indicator is you are bloody fast and your VNE is 0.25M :lol:

On comm & surveillance equipments under NCO.190/200, 8.33khz radio (just 1 two-way com unless the aircraft is “complex 6T” or certified for IFR with 2 or airspace needs 2) and Mode S transponder (needs to be ON & alt reporting tested every 24 months)

For Navigation it gets sketchy, but under PBN you only need nav equipment to achieve route accuracy and second independent backup
- People go for VOR+VOR, VOR+ADF, VOR+GPS, GPS+GPS and maybe extra DME+ADF
- Any BRNAV5 certified IFR GPS should do 10nm wide airways for en-route
- To fly a given plate IAP in IMC, you need it’s equipment*
Also load of caveats on installation being approved in the “aircraft book”

*Some operators use GPS instead of ADF & DME even for traditional holds or substitute GPS distance for LOC/VOR/NDB approaches, I am not sure if that is strictly legal or allowed (maybe country dependent?) but load of aircrafts fly IFR approaches without ADF & DME installations, including CAT, safety-wise there are load of glitches to watch for (e.g. slant distance vs flat distance, THR vs MAPT in straight-in/circle/offset in ILS and GPS, ARP vs THR, ARP vs MAPT, how NDB+DME/LOC+DME/VOR+DME are collocated, how DME is calibrated…), only people who do flight calibration for a living will have a good grasp where “0DME” or “0ADF” sits as GPS Waypoint, those 0.5nm error matters a lot in marginal visibility…

[ post cleaned-up – please, if a discussion is done here, do it here and not on some US forum ]

It should not be placarded VFR only and the AFM should not have VFR only (or NO IFR) limitations, AFAIK.

Can you even have “placard VFR only” where the POH or TC says “IFR permitted”? one can only placard what’s in TCDS or AFM anything else has the same legal value as the funny placards we made for the turbulents: “aircraft bite fools” or “retract radio aerial after flying” or “don’t get low & slow”

Mandatory IFR equipment

AFAIK, to fly overtly under IFR, in IMC or in VMC, you need an aircraft which is legal to fly IFR. In practice this means it must carry the required equipment and there must not be a “VFR-only” restriction on it somewhere.

There are many old types flying which date back to before this sort of thing was normal and they can all fly IFR… unless restricted.

However, one can debate what “overtly” means. In IMC and IR training, one often flies under VFR rules. The Q is when you file an IFR flight plan, or tell ATC you are “IFR”…

Some aircraft are certified VFR only (EASA TCDS search).
A C172 or PA28 is certified VFR/IFR (the latter requiring additional equipment per the POH).

As has been mentioned above, EASA NCO.IDE lists the legal requirements.

One catch that might make a mess in these cases are all the installations done since the aircraft left the factory. Some CS-STAN installations might be VFR Only.

Some years back you could only legally fly IFR if the plane was equipped with ADF, VOR and DME (or was it only ADF and DME? don’t remember). Then the ADF/DME requirement was dismissed in an AIC. In the same AIC the civil aviation authority also mentioned the general requirement to approve or certify GA aircraft for IFR. They did this by restating that there are no way to certify or approve a GA aircraft for IFR. There are no way, because there are no regulations concerning that issue for GA. The aviation authority do approve certain IFR procedures and equipment on a per case basis, but those cases are limited to non standard operations and procedures. It’s the PIC that is the authority of IFR in a GA aircraft. The aircraft has to have the instruments according to NCO.IDE.A.125, radio and transponder according to AIP, avionics to follow the track and in accordance with airspace requirements/AIP (which in Norway, enroute below 10k feet only mean you must be able to follow a track to a point from where you can continue VFR), and the PIC has to be rated. That figure 5 and Part NCO snippet above pretty much describes it.

Ibra wrote:

Can you even have “placard VFR only” where the POH or TC says “IFR permitted”? one can only placard what’s in TCDS or AFM anything else has the same legal value as the funny placards we made for the turbulents: “aircraft bite fools” or “retract radio aerial after flying” or “don’t get low & slow”

@Ibra, got a PA28 at the school which is placarded VFR ONLY. Fuly equiped with 2×GNS and EX5000 EFIS…

arj1 wrote:

got a PA28 at the school which is placarded VFR ONLY.

I think commercial schools are not under Part-NCO, so not sure hat they need for their aircrafts to get them “IFR approved” ?
If it’s my aircraft, I would pull that “VFR only” placard right away and not talk about it to anyone