A PA28 is an IFR certified aircraft.
The way this should work (maybe not in Germany?) all you need to do is install the equipment required for the airspace you are flying in.
Typically this will be: 1 or 2 radios, VOR, DME, ADF, GPS for all practical flight, and all the details like working static wicks.
The way this should work (maybe not in Germany?) all you need to do is install the equipment required for the airspace you are flying in.
That's exactly what you do in Germany. If the aircraft is approved for IFR (POH is your friend) and you have the equipment required by the country for IFR in its airspace, you can fly IFR. The only thing that might be special in Germany is that as part of your avionics check, you get a list of the checked devices and a checkbox whether that meets the requirements for VFR, CVFR or IFR in German airspace.
There used to be a VFR only version of the Cirrus SR20 but that wasn't very successful.
Unfortunately the equipment requirements are still national law. I hope this will be taken over by the EU soon. It just doesn't make sense to have local differences. Every airplane that is overflying German airspace under IFR without a DME on board is in violation of German law. Happens a thousand times a day...
just found this document at EASA pages. Not easy to interpret /at least for me ;-)/, but looks IFR installation of GNS 4xx is a major modification.
Re: PA28 - that´s exactly my way of thinking. If you have the required equipment on board, you can apply for IFR ticket. Unfortunately, our 172 is missing GNS 430 so I can´t simply follow this. Unless applying for major modification......
Yes IFR GPS installation is a major mod.
Unless there is an STC applicable to your aircraft, then it is a minor mod. GTN boxes come with a very broad AML STC.
The comical reality is that countless thousands of GNS430 boxes were "just screwed in", with no paperwork done.
Obviously the customers did not get an AFMS authorising BRNAV or GPS/RNAV approaches 
But then most of those customers didn't know what RNAV was...
In many cases, where an HSI was present, the course pointer was not even wired back to the GPS, as it should be for the OBS mode. I know several installers who didn't know about this...
Whether a GPS installed in such a manner, in a non autopilot installation, is a Major mod is a good question. The act of procuring the AFMS would make it a Major mod under both EASA and FAA. But just screwing one into the panel and connecting it to an antenna, and (let's be really ambitious while we are at it) connecting it to a CDI? Such an installation is fine for VFR nav, and for UK-style-IFR hacking around UK Class G.
If you don't connect it to the autopilot (not even indirectly via the HSI), I heard that even in EASA land this is only a minor mod
Example: https://www.planecheck.com?ent=da&id=57650
I understand that there is a little paperwork involved with getting a GPS installation IFR approved. But why would a flight school, which advertises it as VFR/IFR, not do this, on an aircraft equipped like that?
How do you legally fly IFR in NL without an approved GPS?
Local copy PDF
added, using this.
boscomantico wrote:
understand that there is a little paperwork involved with getting a GPS installation IFR approved. But why would a flight school, which advertises it as VFR/IFR, not do this, on an aircraft equipped like that?How do you legally fly IFR in NL without an approved GPS?
They might be using it for flights under VFR/VMC, simulated IMC, I know some schools in the UK precisely that.
Sure, but the cost for the STC for a GNS430/W is small, and you get a lot more capability, particularly if it’s a flight school plane based at an IFR airport.
The 430 is so old, and pre-dates the 2003 “EASA takeover of certification”, that there must be various national approvals. Like the blanket UK CAA approval of the EDM700 (on the UK AAN database) which then got grandfathered into EASA. @wigglyamp is sure to know.
As regards “VFR” placards, that may not mean anything because most people don’t understand how this stuff works 
