Ifr Gps?
mlw450802 said:
Your radios will provide the assurance of communication and position required by the FAR.-Mike
I agree as long as you have the Com and Nav radios (VOR, LOC, GS, MB, ADF) as required for the intended ground nav stations to be used, any VFR GPS can be used as a reference but NOT used as a primary Nav in anyway. You can fly a VOR approach or LOC approach with a VOR/LOC receiver and monitor it with GPS, but to fly an approach with a VFR GPS and no ground nav radio, no. They don't call them VFR only GPS for a reason.
For TRUE GPS IFR operations I feel unless your GPS and installation meets the TSO for IFR flight, it is not legal for IFR use except as I mentioned, as a reference to back-up ground based NAV.
There are IFR GPS (TSO'ed) that do not have any comm or ground based nav radio capability (VOR/LOC/GS) built-in and are legal for IFR approaches. In the early days of IFR GPS approaches they were all overlaid on existing approaches and you were required to monitor the ground based nav stations. Now you can do a stand-alone GPS approach with no ground based Nav.
However if you are required to file an alternate airport for a certain flight, the alternate airport must have a ground based approach that you can receive and fly, not a GPS approach. In other words even with an IFR TSO'ed GPS you may still need ground based Nav equip to be legal, for example at least a VOR.
The controversy, can an IFR GPS (TSO'ed) alone be legal in an experimental aircraft. Some contend that experimental aircraft are differnt than factory aircraft, even with an IFR GPS TSO'ed your RV still requires ground based Nav equipment, because the exemptions to use GPS for IFR does not apply to experimental aircraft. The operating limitations for experimental is clear: 91.205(d)(2), states you need the ground nav equip which you intended to use. Some say this means you must use (or have) ground based Nav, others say anything goes and if you don't intend on using ground based Nav (e.g., an IFR GPS) you don't need ground Nav. They also extend this to say experimental means you can fly just with any old GPS , with nothing else. Negative. If you are IFR rated and know the requirments I don't think this would be a thought you would consider, loop hole or not.
The intent of the law does not extend to handheld GPS approaches. Even the manual by the manufacture states that it is for VFR use only. Is there any controversy? No.
Regardless a VOR/LOC/GS/MB/DME is still the mainstay of the IFR system and will give you the lowest approach mins.
I am going simple delux VFR, EFIS, Portable color map GPS, autopilot. In theory I could fly an IFR GPS approach but it would be as illegal as hell, if not even unsafe. I think you should/must have an IFR GPS (tso'ed) and installed as is required in factory planes to be legal.
If you are really IFR rated, really going to fly IFR and have real IMC time, you would not consider flying around with a handheld gps or doing stand-alone GPS approaches with no standard ground based Nav reference. If you want GPS approach capability you need a panel mounted GPS, TSO'ed, installation that meets the TSO and current data base. Even than real practical (safe) IFR requires more than just a GPS in my opinion, legal or not.
Cheers George
