Terry wrote:

Visual Flight Rule (VFR) weather minimums are described in 14CFR
91.155. If the weather in your location does not meet those minimums,
you must be operating under Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) and comply
with all the requirements of the IFR section of part 91.

For the equipment requirements, 91.205 describes the requirements for
POWERED aircraft, which does not apply to pure gliders but will to what
we call motorgliders. In order to operate under IFR your aircraft must
be authorized by its type certificate to do so. This will be noted in
your flight manual. Without that, operations under IFR would be in
violation of 91.9(a) which requires you to fly in accordance with your
ship's manual.

The certification requirments are described in 14CFR Part 61. In order
to operated under IFR, you need an instrument rating (61.3(e)). You
would also need to meet the recency of experience requirements listed
in 61.57(c) in order to fly IFR.

Long and short, don't do it. There is way too much to hang you with if
you do it.

Are you using IFR to mean IMC? I know at least one glider pilot that
flies IFR in his glider - Carl Herold. I don't think he flies it in IMC,
but I don't know for sure.

Never mind the implication for us all if God forbid another
airplane operating on a clearance hits you.

Can't that happen in broad daylight to a VFR glider? At least the IFR
glider would have a transponder and be in contact with ATC.


--
Change "netto" to "net" to email me directly

Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA

www.motorglider.org - Download "A Guide to Self-launching Sailplane
Operation"