Matt Whiting said:
Does anyone know if the Skycatcher will be IFR certified? It doesn't
appear to be from what little I've found at the Cessna web site.

The Cessna rep at the recent Hartford Expo claimed the Skycather will be VFR
day and nite authorized per the ASTM standard (it will obviously exceed the
Part 91 minimum requirements), so it can be used as both a SP and primary
PPL line trainer. He said that it will NOT be authorized for flight into
IMC, even when the ASTM finalizes their IFR operations consensus standard.
When I pressed him on why, he claimed that Cessna gave into that as a design
limitation to Garmin, before Garmin custom designed the displays. He claimed
that Garmin could (would??) not meet price and performance (with limited
redundancy) if the boxes needed to meet future IMC/IFR operational
conditions.

I have been unable to vet this "Garmin" information. But I know that if any
LSA component manufacturer of the airframe (ie engine, prop, etc) disallows
operation at night or in IMC then that operation is forbidden per the FAA
rules.

This whole issue of PPLs operating LSAs in IMC is very nebulus to me a the
moment. Helen Woods had steared me back to the FAA docs that clearly show
IFR operations of LSAs falling within the final rules. I have the
disadvantage of having been involved in some of the original development and
comment process, and now am a little confused as to what actually made it
into the final docs. I promised myself that on a couple of cold snowy nites
this winter I'll print them all out and (re)read them.


"C J Campbell" wrote...
The Skycatcher is Cessna's Light Sport Aircraft. The FAA, in its infinite
wisdom, has decreed that new LSA cannot be certified for IFR.

I have been a proponent of that line of thinking since the original rfc. The
FAA now says we are both wrong. I will wait for the final Consensus
Standard, but I don't like SEL ops with Part 91 minimum equipment in IMC, so
I don't see myself getting in a LSA for an IRF trip. Hell,... can anyone
tell me if any LSA maker besides Tecnam even has window defrost?