ACS Alignment

FAA-S-ACS-8 — Instrument Rating–Airplane & Helicopter · Area of Operation II. Preflight Procedures · Task: A. Aircraft Systems & Required Equipment for IFR

IR.II.A.K1 — required equipment for IFR (91.205(d)) ⚑ IR.II.A.K2 — instrument cockpit check items ⚑ IR.II.A.R1 — risk: dispatching with inop equipment ⚑ IR.II.A.S1 — perform the instrument cockpit check ⚑

⚑ FLAG (Walter): K/R/S identifiers are best-fit to FAA-S-ACS-8C Area II, Task A — confirm exact codes against the current ACS.

Instrument Cockpit Check & Required Equipment

Proving the aircraft is legal and ready for instrument flight before you launch.

By the end of this lesson you can:

List the IFR equipment required by 14 CFR 91.205(d) (the "GRABCARD" items).
Perform a systematic instrument cockpit check before taxi and takeoff.
Confirm the required IFR inspections are current (VOR check, altimeter/pitot-static, transponder).
Decide whether an inoperative item makes the aircraft un-airworthy for the planned IFR flight.

1 · Required equipment — 91.205(d)

On top of the day-VFR and night-VFR equipment, 14 CFR 91.205(d) adds the IFR items. A common memory aid is GRABCARD:

Letter	Item
G	Generator/alternator
R	Radios (nav/comm appropriate to the route)
A	Attitude indicator
B	Ball (slip-skid indicator)
C	Clock (with a sweep-second or digital seconds)
A	Altimeter (sensitive/adjustable)
R	Rate-of-turn indicator
D	Directional gyro / heading indicator

Also confirm the required inspections are current for IFR: the VOR check (every 30 days, if using VOR), and the altimeter/pitot-static and transponder checks (each every 24 calendar months).

2 · The instrument cockpit check

Before taxi and run-up, work a deliberate flow: set and cross-check the altimeter (within tolerance of field elevation), confirm the attitude and heading sources erect/align and the heading agrees with the compass, check the turn/slip and VSI read sensibly, and verify the nav/comm radios, GPS database currency, and transponder. During taxi, confirm the turn indicator and compass swing the correct direction. Treat anything out of tolerance as a no-go until resolved.

3 · Watch

Curated reference clip — “Requirements to Fly IFR | Instrument Proficiency Check | IFR Inspections” · FlightInsight (YouTube), verified via oEmbed. Embedded with the creator’s player; we don’t host or alter it.

4 · Reference sources

Use the authoritative references

📄 14 CFR 91.205 — Required instruments & equipment 📄 Instrument Flying Handbook (FAA-H-8083-15B) — Preflight

Your aircraft: the R44 POH Kinds-of-Operations Equipment List and avionics section define what's installed and required. Confirm the aircraft's IFR equipment and the inspection currency before relying on it for instrument flight.

QA flag: confirm IR ACS codes (FAA-S-ACS-8C) and re-verify the 91.205(d) list, GRABCARD mapping, and inspection intervals against the current regulation before publishing.

✍️ Fill in for the aircraft you fly Installed IFR equipment and last VOR / altimeter-static / transponder check dates: Look it up in the R44 POH (Kinds-of-Operations Equipment List) and the aircraft logs; confirm with your CFI.

Risk management (the "Consider"): "it was working last flight" is not an airworthiness determination. An inop required item, a lapsed pitot-static or transponder check, or an out-of-date GPS database can make an IFR launch illegal and unsafe. Run the cockpit check the same way every time, and let any unresolved discrepancy be a hard no-go rather than a "we'll watch it."