"Roger Halstead" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 07 Feb 2004 22:05:04 GMT, (Ben Jackson) wrote:

In article ,
Ron Wanttaja wrote:
As several other folks have pointed out, there is no such thing as "IFR
Certified"...if any aircraft is equipped in accordance to CFR 91.205(d)

But a Diamond DA-20 can be equipped (probably even comes) with all the
necessary IFR equipment, but you can't actually fly it IFR because they
didn't embed the metal mesh in the composite skin like they did in the
DA-40.

I'd seriously doubt the metal mesh would keep it from being certified
for IFR. The Beech Starship didn't have a metal mesh and it was
certified for IFR.


Believe it. The mesh provides the lightning protection required to meet the
current Part 23 rules. Starship is one of the reasons the HIRF and
lightning standards have increased by several orders of magnitude over the
last 10 years. I know guys who worked the Starship's avionics. It was a
headache then to meet the old specs. No way it could be certificated today
without the extra shielding.

The key words in whether you can fly IFR are OPERATING LIMITATIONS. If your
operating limitations say "VFR only" you can't fly IFR even if you have the
equipment in 14 CFR 91.205(d). If it doesn't say you can't, or it says you
can; then you can fly IFR if you meet all the other requirements in Part
91.

All aircraft have operating limitations. An experimental gets them as part
of the airworthiness certificate. These are pretty loose since it doesn't
have to meet any of the 14 CFR Part 23 requirements. A certificated
aircraft gets its operating limitations as part of its type certificate. If
it can't meet 14 CFR 23.1309 (b), it will be limited to VFR. While it
doesn't say anything about lightning, section 23.1309 (b)(4)(i) refers to
"...including malfunctions and damage from external sources;" Lightning and
HIRF are external sources that must be addressed by the applicant.

Gerry