"Steven P. McNicoll" wrote...

'IFR conditions' and 'instrument conditions' are not necessarily the same
thing.

How do they differ?

According to "the FAA" (John D. Lynch, GENERAL AVIATION CERTIFICATION BRANCH,
AFS-840):

'This goes back to earlier statement in Answer 1 where I said the weather
conditions establish whether the flight is in "actual instrument conditions."
And that is dependent on the weather conditions where the aircraft is physically
located and the pilot makes that determination as to whether the flight is in
"actual instrument conditions" or he is performing instrument flight under
"simulated instrument conditions."' (Part 61 FAQ, 7/14/03, p. 99)


Note: "the pilot makes that determination"