So...how else can we compare the bulbs? What do you mean by "as good"?

It doesn't really matter, unless you are writing the rules. In your
position, you only get to follow them (or not). Let's turn it around a
bit. You are thinking of buying an airplane, and you find that the
owner has declined to record his maintanance as required by the FAA.
This of course has no impact on safety, since it's just paperwork, and
the airplane flies just as well without that dumb bureaucrap. Of course
the landing light is the tractor bulb, and the stall switches (seven
hundred dollars from piper) were replaced with two dollar radio shack
switches when they failed. In fact, there are two in parallel, for
redundancy. One of the landing gear shocks turns out to be a truck
shock which the owner assures you is just as good.

The engine is just out of overhaul but the mechanic is at an airport a
hundred miles away. No problem - he fires up the plane and you both fly
there so you can speak to the mechanic. You fly this leg yourself, as a
test flight. He'll fly home (because he's paranoid about the dumb FAA
rules about sharing costs, so this makes it ok). While you're at the
shotp, he runs into a buddy who has a beer brewing hobby. So this pilot
samples a bit of his brew. Just a sip (maybe an ounce of beer). It's
not really a problem because you'll be talking to the mechanic for a
while, and by the time he gets back at the controls, it will be four
full hours, maybe more. The "eight hour bottle to throttle" rule is
stupid since it doesn't distinguish between a sip and a couple of
glasses. He's got a system where he's figured out a function of how
many ounces of beer he can have how many hours before flying - two hours
for a sip, four hours for half a glass - eight hours for one drink,
twelve hours for two drinks. It's lots more sensible than that hard and
fast FAA crap, since the FAA would let you fly eight hours after four
drinks if you weren't impaired. The FAA rules are for idiots who can't
figure this out.

So, you talk to his mechanic and he assures you that the engine is in
great shape, and shows you the oil analysis report. It =is= in great
shape according to that.

Five hours later he gets in the left seat, you get in the right seat,
and express some concern about his alcohol thing. "No problem, you can
be PIC", but I still have to fly the leg home. It's getting cloudy and
the return will be IFR.

He's rated. He's current and sharp. That is, he flies an hour on MSFS
every day practicing approaches. He has not done the FAA six in six in
a real airplane but he's sharper than most pilots who are "current".

On the way home the weather turns to crap, he's on top of it despite his
little sip of beer, and brings the thing down to minimums on a GPS
approach. No airport. The GPS shows he's right above the runway, so he
ducks down two hundred feet, finds the strip exactly where he said it
would be, flies a tight pattern and greases it in.

The DH is pretty high because of a large radio tower, but since he knows
where it is, he's comfortable going down another 250 feet if he has to.

Eagle flight needs pilots. Would you reccomend him?

You want to buy an airplane. Would you buy his?

Jose
--
"Never trust anything that can think for itself, if you can't see where
it keeps its brain." (chapter 10 of book 3 - Harry Potter).
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