matthew_w100 wrote:Genghis the Engineer wrote:- If you want IFR and night it will have to be certified to light aircraft standards not microlight standards.
G
Apart from a heated pitot, what are the significant differences between light aircraft and microlight standards which would enable night and/or IFR for the former but not the latter? Clearly LA require an equipment uplift to fly when you can't see but what is it about the standards that makes the same infeasible in a microlight?
Quite a lot.
CS.23 and 14CFR.23 are the two lowest standards that normally apply to aeroplanes approved for IFR
now (bearing in mind that there are plenty of aeroplanes around that were approved for IFR 50+ years ago that absolutely would not be now, but have grandfather rights. My old Rollason Condor was one such, and had no pitot heater.
There's not a single agreed standard for bridging from a VFR only aeroplane. FAA provide a route to recertify a VLA aeroplane to part 23; so far as I know that doesn't exist in EASAland. LAA created a bridge for an existing LAA aeroplane to be approved for IFR, and that has included a certified engine, minimum certified instruments , a pitot-heater, and a handling qualities assessment. I evaluated a Glasair for them in that role a couple of years ago and whilst I disagreed on a few aspects* of how they went about it, it was appropriately rigorous, taking me several hours to fly.
G
* Before anybody asks, LAA redefined the Cooper-Harper handling qualities scale in a way that I felt was an unnecessary and inappropriate simplification.
I am Spartacus, and so is my co-pilot.