Most school flights are under part-NCO, even if they simulate part.CAT or other. I mean for IRME/CPL, of course the type rating and/or complex aircraft are NCC.
Do they do maintenance under Part145? or Part-M? does the former make any difference to “IFR maintenance” (appart from pitot-static & transponder tests?), also does aircraft has DME? I was told DME is needed to fly IFR in Paris FIR but I could not find any reference in French AIP?
The OP was regarding airframe IFR certification, IMHO.
For equipment carriage, we have had lots of other threads. It’s a much bigger topic and is poorly understood, partly because there is much disinformation being spread about how many radios one needs, etc.
For the mostly SEP/MEP context here: Commercial (profit oriented) flight training is still considered NCO and their training aircraft need a controlled CAO/CAMO maintenance environment.
A club ATO doesn’t need CAO/CAMO.
This, just like Part-M or DME etc… doesn’t have anything to do with IFR certification.
The „VFR only“ placard and its reason should be recorded in the tech log of the aircraft. Removal should be recorded the same way.
Again, for IFR yes vs. no:
1) Check POH for any limitation (eg VFR only)
2) Check TCDS for the same
3) Check equipment against POH
4) Check equipment against NCO.IDE
[5)* Check equipment against national requirements
*(EU law overrides national law. So just mentioning this for completeness of airspace requirements. For example Austria mentions in the AIP that it requires IFR flights to be DME equipped, which is a legal inaccuracy and can be overridden with NCO.IDE).
Thanks a lot!
I just made a quick summary of this for my CB-IR/BIR website.
Can be found here: https://www.cb-ir.net/what-makes-an-aircraft-ifr-certified/
Thanks for the inspiration, guys!Good summary, thank you!
Do I as a pilot have to verify that transponder checks have been effected within two years (for IFR aircraft in France) vs. five years?
Do I as a pilot have to verify if an installed GTN650 was sold as a « VFR version »?
For pitot-static and transponder, there is the VFR checks and the IFR checks, the first is mandatory under EASA every 12 months under EASA Part-M, the second is mandatory under FAA FAR91.411 every 24 months
Some countries mandate the latter under their own national regs as well, there is nothing in the rules as such now only an EASA recommendation EASA SIB (SIB 2011-15R2)
https://ad.easa.europa.eu/ad/2011-15R2
At the end it’s CAMO or AI&P who decides, ATC will verify your transponder reporting (and it may even check itself on the ground for free 
)
For IFR GPS, it should be in AFM or AFMS, even if GPS installed is IFR, no AFM supplement no IFR for an upgrade there should be a logbook entry with STC or CS-STAN approval, hard to tell if it’s a good setup though but how far you want to dig? (also some GPS units were installed with TXP output for ADSB VFR flying)
AIUI, the operator is responsible, not the pilot.
In the GA pilot-owner scenario, they are usually the same person, but it would be ludicrous (in any country with a working justice system) to bust a renter for some subtle airworthiness issue.
