Plane is IFR Certified....or not?

Well, where I live, 90% of IFR weather is either convective (summer) or icy (winter), so hood work has to do. Not perfect, but doable.

Ray
 
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I think the best answer is to check the POH and placards in the aircraft. There are some aircraft that are well equipped with all required instruments and equipment that are still not certified for instrument flight. The Diamond Katana/DA-20 come to mind. They are composite and do not meet lightning strike criteria.

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My school just got a Diamond Eclipse, and it is the same way. I was all psyched sitting in it with my instructor, and I asked if we could take it on an instrument training flight. About the time I said that, I saw the big placard in the middle that says something like 'Approved for VFR flight only.' I started wondering why a school in FL would get planes that don't have lightning protection. I guess you COULD use it for IFR training, IF you remained VFR. It satisfies all the 91.205 requirements.
 
yep, you could use it for IFR training "under the hood" as long as you remained in VFR conditions.
 
...and that means that you could not file IFR even though your flight may occur completely in VMC conditions...

I have a future instrument student who flies an Eclipse. I hope to do most of her training in the Eclipse, but anytime we want to fly IN IMC or FILE under IFR, she'll have to crawl back to our modest FBO and take out our C172N beater
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