I know what you mean. There are some 50 airports all along Norway too with full instrument landing capabilities. On paper, you should be able to get “everywhere” flying IFR. In reality most of those airports have short opening hours, and outside those opening hours you can only land VFR. You can still fly “EIR style”. Still, someone visiting Norway during the summer months, could do it entirely IFR with a minimum of planning and no problems with weather/icing. Also, if you happen to use your aircraft to get around for work for instance, there should be no problems with opening hours. The problem would be dispatch rate during 6-8 months a year due to icing and weather. Maybe a DA 42 could do it rather well for all I know (or a Cirrus, if you have 100% confidence in the single 1930 tech engine), but a TBM or Caravan or something with a turbine would be much better due to more HP and reliability. A bit outside my flying habit this, but I know you would need something substantially better than a IFR capable C-172 to prevent risking being stranded for days, or even weeks at a time.
Anyway, this was really not what I was aiming at. I’m a recreational pilot, a weekend pilot, as 95% of PPL pilots are. I have no business at those 50 airports, because nothing is happening there. My “home base” is one of those 50 (open 24/7 by the way 
), and I want to go to the private fields were all the other weekend pilots are going. None of those fields have instruments. I fly below the weather, and this has caused me no problems so far, only I see that with a helicopter, this would be much easier.
There have been lots of talk about EIR and CB-IR here as well. But as of today I don’t personally know a single person who actually is going to take those ratings. I think everyone with IR rating that I know, have a CPL (from the US typically) or military background. I know several who have, and are, going into acro, heli, sea planes and microlights. People can do whatever they want, if they want IR rating, good for them, but it’s not something for me.
It would be nice if you people would stop spreading this misinformation. IFR is perfectly legal in homebuilt experimental aircraft in Norway,
It IS not possible in MOST EASA countries to this day, no matter if it is possible in one or more of them.
neither UK or Germany for instance can legally stop LN or SE reg experimentals from flying IFR in their air spaces,
I understand that homebuilt experimentals need overflight permits in each country they operate outside of their own borders, even though some countries reckognize the permit of others. I am no legal expert, but I can not remotely imagine that countries who will not allow IFR for homebuilts registered in their own country will allow operation of the same within their territory of foreign registered aircraft.
Therefore, experimentals in Europe are VFR and VFR day in MOST countries, even if you can legally fly IFR in Norway.
A Lancair is fast and efficient and maneuverable, but is it a good IFR platform? Maybe with a good autopilot,
SEP IFR without an AP is more the thing which nobody will do especcially over here. Lancairs, particularly the larger models, are perfect travelling machines, fast, long range, economical, so restricting them to VFR is pretty much stopping them from doing what they are best at. I have known Lancair operators in the US who fly them IFR regularly over long distances (I knew a guy who had one who worked in Oregon but lived in Ilinois and communted fairly regularly, IFR with AP in an original Lancair 2 seater) . Especcially Lancair 4P and such machines simply do not make any sense VFR only.
How fun is that? Norway (and Sweden) is a bush plane country, a helicopter country, a microlight country. It is just way more practical to get around VFR than IFR.
If that is what you want to do, that is perfectly fine.
If I was living in Norway, a place I love and have been very happy to visit every time I did it, I would want a reliable, fast travelling machine to take me to wherever I need to go. Yes, within Norway this may well need something stronger and better equipped than in other parts of Europe (even though Ice and other stuff is present here as well) but for most of Europe, VFR is just not a way to travel with any degree of reliability or comfort.
It IS not possible in MOST EASA countries to this day, no matter if it is possible in one or more of them.
That’s the way it seems to be.
Also not being allowed to fly Eurocontrol IFR, and being allowed to fly IFR within your own country which more or less means doing it non-Eurocontrol, is meaningless because anybody can fly any plane in IMC if nobody knows about you, and within your own country you usually don’t need a flight plan so again nobody knows about you
It’s a bit like having an IAP, with no approach control, to a UK coastal airport with a DH of 1000ft
I would want a reliable, fast travelling machine to take me to wherever I need to go
I would’t say no to a custom Caravan. Take a few years off, and fly all around the world visiting every exotic place there is. That could be fun, but until I win the great price in lottery, the realism in that dream is exactly zero. After a month or two, I would probably get bored anyway. The point is, I don’t need to go anywhere, except in the air, and in my shop to build my airplanes
I am no legal expert, but I can not remotely imagine that countries who will not allow IFR for homebuilts registered in their own country will allow operation of the same within their territory of foreign registered aircraft.
I’m no legal expert either, but, this is two separate and very different issues. One does not imply the other. You have the same issues with boats. International travel is governed by international laws (agreements). Me, as a Norwegian citizen, flying my Norwegian aircraft outside of Norway have to follow these agreements. You as a UK citizen flying a UK registered aircraft in UK has to follow UK law.
That is not correct.
I know for sure that i have to have a DME for legal IFR flight in Germany – no matter where the airplane is registered.
And that is only one example. A Norvegian homebuilt cannot fly IFR in Germany, i am very sure about that.
LeSving:
1930’s technology? Wrong. The grandfather of the SR22’s engine was the IO-520, introduced in 1963, the IO-550 came in 1981.
What you won’t get is the ability to jump in and just fly Eurocontrol IFR across Europe in the way certified aircraft can do. This is because the individual country permissions will still be needed
In many cases this is no longer true. For instance, in the countries I’m interested in flying to (France and Eire) no permission is required for UK permit aircraft.
The ECAC 11.1 from 1980 assures no prior permission is needed for experimental homebuilt aircraft. But it has to be a:
home-built aircraft with a certificate of airworthiness or a “permit to fly” issued by another Member State
That 1980 document has been mostly disregarded. We have done this before… If it were anywhere near universally honoured in Europe, the whole scene would be transformed.
I don’t want to derail this thread though – better to continue that particular discussion here
And if I were richer, I would own an Apache. I loved that classic twin, OK it was “a good time builder” (euphemism for slow) but it was like flying a twin engined TriPacer – it was fun – and it was the sort of twin you could take into a grass airfield without much bother.
The world needs some well maintained Apaches. I’d love to have one too, for the same reasons. This one looks great Link and all it needs is a couple of engine overhauls…
(when I was twelve I called them ‘little old twins’, but they were a lot younger then)
