My main question is: is there any EU Country that allows his experimentals to legally fly IFR in class A (of course subject to certified avionics, etc)? If not (I don’t know any), then why install a g900x in Europe at all?
IFR flight around Europe in homebuilts doesn’t exist for practical purposes today. So, yes, IMHO, if I was buying and equipping a homebuilt today I would equip it to be really good for VFR and for what one might call “marginal IFR” (which means whatever you want it to mean)
But things may change one day. Especially if you are merely overflying the countries which don’t play ball. There is a UK project ongoing, as many know, and while that will not give G-reg homebuilts any IFR rights outside the UK automatically (the way certified aircraft get automatic rights) it may lead to reciprocal agreements which are good enough for a lot of purposes. Especially if the non-players will be only overflown. Overflight (in the Eurocontrol IFR system, of course) is very clearly possible right now (and probably happens quite a lot) but one day may become legal to the extent of being able to fly an IAP at the destination, overtly.
I wonder what equipment the Lancair Evolution TP has? This is a rather poor photo I took at one airfield on a very nice island which EuroGA regulars will be familiar with
At the price of this, they could throw in the very top stuff, for the US market where IFR is 100% fine.
The Evolution should have the 900x + the gfc7x autopilot (non certified versions of the g1000+gfc700 autopilot).
Speaking of Garmin, I always wondered how reliable is a g3x+gmc305 autopilot compared to a 900x+gfc7x. My impression is that the team developping the g3x system is completely unrelated to the team working on the certified Garmin systems, despite both working for Garmin. It is as if the “x-team” was given the task of “copying” the certified systems without any “insider” info, just trying to reverse engineer like an external competitor. If you read the g3x manual it seems written by amateurs, while the g1000 manual contains precise info written by professionals.
The avionics suite of the Evolution straight from the horse’s mouth: http://www.lancair.com/evolution/evolution-pricing/
No WAAS GPS in there? No Jepp database, therefore?
Can the G900 kit fly a “virtual ILS” to any point on the ground?
G900x has 2x WAAs receivers.
The US Lancair forum is a good source of information…
G900x has 2x WAAs receivers.
I looked up the G900x and this
disproves the widely held belief that Jeppesen terminal charts (or even GPS approach databases) are not available on uncertified products.
So it must be that
Especially if the non-players will be only overflown. Overflight (in the Eurocontrol IFR system, of course) is very clearly possible right now (and probably happens quite a lot) but one day may become legal to the extent of being able to fly an IAP at the destination, overtly.
You don’t have any rights to overfly a country with an aircraft without an ICAO compliant certificate of airworthiness. It is done right now, but I have serious doubt it is leagal. For homebuilts you need permission of the state overflown.
No WAAS GPS in there? No Jepp database, therefore?
You don’t need a SBAS GPS to get a Jepp database. Non-SBAS GNS430 and G1000 certainly have Jepp databases.
The Lancair Evolution is definitely a great airplane, and the way these and similar airplanes are equipped – they are probably just as safe as certified planes of the same class (although we know that a Lancair IV, for example, requires much higher pilot qualificiation in IMC than a Cirrus, Mooney or TB20)
But to fly self made IMC approaches in homebuilts and with non-certified “digital” avionics (“synthetic vision”, “autopilot coupled”, “WAAS”) … to VFR fields …, I must say I don’t like that idea at all. I mean I have a hard time trusting the CERTIFIED stuff …(and I don’t).
I do not think that a non certified TruTrak autopilot in an experimental airplane is as safe as a DFC90, GFC700 or even as a S-TEC55X or KFC225 (;-))
The rules might be too strict when it’s about Experimentals, but that does not mean they’re all completely stupid. Take the above post about the pitch sensitivity of an RV-6. You want to fly one of those by hand in serious IMC? Well, I don’t … I know, I’m such a sissy! :-)