Night Flying

[MarkMinary]

Just wondering if there is a forecast date (yet) for approved types of permit aircraft to be able to be flown at night?

[Brian Hope]

Hi Mark, the first LAA Permit aircraft, a Bulldog, has been approved to commence testing and it is expected that the first kit built will join it shortly.
It would not be unreasonable to hope that, provided the testing goes well and the aircraft equipment fit/maintenance issues are all agreed, by early summer the process of assessing members' aircraft will be ready to roll.

[G.Dawes]

Can anybody explain why an aircraft that was a trainer with the RAF for many years used to fly in IMC and night exercises suddenly lost the ability to do both once a Permit was issued. It now needs to be examined tested and appraised before being allowed to do so again, when the same model which did not go onto permit can still do so and has always been able to do so. Two serial numbers one next to the other one can, one cannot. ????????????????? Does paperwork control the ability to keep upright in cloud?
How does a Homebuilt fly Airways across Africa in the most dire of tropical thunderstorms in direct opposition to the rules of a permit, Was a special dispensation obtained for the flight? If so what is the difference. Another Homebuilt flies across the Oceanic control zone, Class A airspace all of it with the same restriction applying to it about IMC? Both of these feats were special and awe inspiring but what is the legalities of them.

[Brian Hope]

Well Graham the simple answer is that yes the paperwork does make a difference because it expresses the level of maintenance and parts approval and traceability that is applied to the equipment fitted to that aircraft.
Yes it was once an approved RAF trainer with highly trained technicians, with the highest quality test equipment and spares back up, maintaining it at no expense spared. And yes it was once a civilian machine on a Certificate of Airworthiness that decreed its equipment was certified and maintained to a fully approved standard that enabled it to fly at night and in IMC. Once it comes onto a Permit then it is approved for day/VFR only, and if your horizon goes up the swanny you can, if you wish, replace it with a non-certified unit, or a second-hand unit of unknown history. That unit is an unknown quantity, it might be the best thing since sliced bread, or it may be a low quality third world import – would you risk your life on it in other than day/VFR? More to the point, should those charged with aviation safety allow you to risk the lives of third parties in the aircraft or on the ground, by using it in other than day/VFR?
The very nature of day/VFR only approval and the use of ‘fit for purpose’ components and maintenance limitations means that as time goes by, the suitability of any aircraft for use in other than day/VFR, whether orphan or homebuilt, becomes highly questionable as the probability is that more and more non approved parts have been fitted. My Jodel for instance, has been on a Permit for over 35 years and not a single instrument in it is original, nor is the wiring, the regulator/rectifier, the alternator, the battery… the list goes on. The vast majority of the replacement parts used are non-certified. Would it be sensible for the CAA to allow me to fly it in night/IFR conditions, as it is currently inspected and signed off for continued use in day/VFR only? Of course not. I don’t like rules any more than the next guy, but sometimes they really do make a lot of sense.