Europe’s new rules permitting night and IMC commercial passenger operations in single-engine turboprops and jets go into effect on March 21. However, individual state approvals must be given before SET-IMC operations can actually begin, and specific minimum operational, training, maintenance and equipment requirements must also be met.
A turbine single cannot even be considered for commercial operations until it has been shown that an “acceptable level of turbine engine reliability” is being achieved in service by the world fleet for that particular airframe-engine combination. The candidate aircraft must also be on an engine trend-monitoring system.
Airplanes intended to be used for SET-IMC operations also need to be equipped with an emergency electrical system and two separate generating systems, each one able to supply adequate power to all essential components required for continued flight to the destination or alternate; two attitude indicators powered from independent sources; an RNAV system capable of being programmed with the positions of airports and providing lateral guidance to these sites; a radio altimeter; and a landing light that can illuminate the touchdown point from 200 feet away.
When operating a single-turbine airplane under IFR, the pilot must have a minimum of 700 hours of airplane flight time, including 400 hours as PIC or 800 hours as SIC, with at least 100 hours under IFR.
