Minimum equipment required for IFR flight

[Bill Hart]

I am having trouble finding what is the minimum equipment required to file an IFR flight plan legally. I know that you must have valid 91.411 and 413 altimeter and transponder inspections, but I can’t find anything about other required equipment. I vaguely remember something about the minimum equipment needed to track an airway and shoot an approach at your intended destination.
I have one VFR only GPS/COM (KLX135) so I don’t think I can legally file an IFR flight plan. The reason I ask is I like to have family track my flights when I am flying cross country and if you are flying VFR Flight Aware doesn’t do a good enough job. They suggest filing IFR. While I am capable I don’t think my airplane is.
I know that I can just file it and fly but I would like to be legal so any reference to an FAR would be greatly appreciated.

[bagarre]

For Family Flight Tracking, you might want to consider this
http://findmespot.com/en/index.php

I usually just send text messages with position reports to those who care.
Depends on the flight and if you can get cell reception tho.

SPOT uses satellites tho.

[Bill Hart]

Thanks David, I will try that site.

I did find the FAR I was looking for 91.205.

[BeeMan]

Another option for flight tracking is gpstracker, which is a free app to run on your gps equipped smart phone. Then use Instamapper.com to display the trail of bread crumbs you left behind (essentially point data reflecting your coordinates, altitude, speed, and heading). It reports the position data via cell service, so won't be useful for instantaneous locations when out of cell coverage. However, the system will buffer up to 100 positions (mine is configured to report at 1 minute intervals), so all data is retained if you reconnect with the cell service in time. I included the instamapper address with user name and password on my master flight plan. I checked with flight service to see whether they could query this info in case they needed to find me. They said yes, it worked nicely, and presented useful data that was most impressive for a free internet based service. My spouse likes it too. Check it out.

Bill

[Bramlett]

Are you a ham radio operator by chance? I use APRS which is a ham radio feature.

Here is a recent track from the Greenville south carolina 170 meet up


http://aprs.fi/#!call=a/N2542C&timerange=3600