"What do I actually need on board to fly this legally?" is one of the first questions a student asks, and the honest answer is that it depends on two things at once: what kind of operation you are conducting, and where you are flying. A VFR day flight, a VFR night flight and a flight into transponder airspace each pull in a different list, and the FAA and EASA build those lists in noticeably different ways. Getting them straight is the difference between a legal dispatch and a snag you find on the ramp.
This is general educational information, not operational, legal, or regulatory advice. Rules differ by authority and change over time. Always verify against current official sources and follow your operator's approved procedures.
Two questions, not one
The equipment a flight needs is driven first by the operation. Day VFR asks for one list; night VFR adds to it; instrument flight adds more again. On top of that sits a separate layer that does not care whether you are day or night, VFR or IFR: the surveillance equipment (transponder and, increasingly, ADS-B) that the airspace demands. Keep those two axes apart in your head, the operation and the airspace, and the rules stop feeling like a jumble.
Under the FAA the operation-driven lists live in 14 CFR 91.205, which applies to a powered civil aircraft with a standard category US airworthiness certificate and sets out, paragraph by paragraph, the equipment for VFR day, VFR night and IFR. Under EASA the same ground is covered by the instrument-and-equipment rules of Part-NCO (the rules for non-commercial operations with other-than-complex motor-powered aircraft), in the Easy Access Rules for Air Operations. The two arrive at broadly similar aeroplanes but list them differently, which is exactly where cross-system confusion creeps in.
The FAA day VFR list
For day VFR, 14 CFR 91.205(b) enumerates the required instruments and equipment. In the order the rule gives them, taking the aeroplane items: an airspeed indicator; an altimeter; a magnetic direction indicator; a tachometer for each engine; an oil pressure gauge for each engine using a pressure system; a temperature gauge for each liquid-cooled engine; an oil temperature gauge for each air-cooled engine; a manifold pressure gauge for each altitude engine; a fuel gauge showing the quantity in each tank; a landing-gear position indicator if the aircraft has retractable gear; for small aeroplanes certificated after 11 March 1996 an approved anticollision light system; approved flotation gear and a signalling device if operated for hire over water beyond power-off gliding distance from shore; an approved safety belt for each occupant 2 years of age or older; an approved shoulder harness for the applicable seats; and an emergency locator transmitter where 14 CFR 91.207 requires one. Generations of American students memorise this by the mnemonic "A TOMATO FLAMES", which is a study aid, not a substitute for reading the rule.
Two details reward care. The anticollision-light item in the day list carries the date "11 March 1996" and applies only to certain small aeroplanes; do not confuse that date with the different one that governs the night anticollision requirement below. And the flotation gear is conditional, triggered by operating for hire over water, not a blanket requirement.
What night adds under the FAA
Night VFR does not replace the day list; it builds on it. 14 CFR 91.205(c) requires everything in paragraph (b) plus: approved position lights; an approved aviation red or aviation white anticollision light system on all US-registered civil aircraft (with a date caveat of 11 August 1971 for older type certificates, a different date from the day rule's 1996); "if the aircraft is operated for hire, one electric landing light"; an adequate source of electrical energy for all installed electrical and radio equipment; and one spare set of fuses, or three spare fuses of each kind required, accessible to the pilot in flight. The American memory hook here is "FLAPS".
The landing-light qualifier is the classic trap. The FAA requires a landing light for night VFR only if the aircraft is operated for hire; a privately operated aeroplane is not obliged by 91.205(c) to carry one, however sensible it is to have it. And note what the FAA does not demand for night VFR: no attitude indicator, no turn-and-slip, no vertical speed indicator. The attitude indicator and turn-and-slip are instrument-flight items, sitting in 91.205(d), not night-VFR ones; the vertical speed indicator the FAA does not require even for Part 91 IFR, while EASA requires one for night VFR. That absence is the single biggest contrast with EASA.
The EASA equivalent: Part-NCO
EASA structures the same ground around function rather than a single list. The flight and navigation instruments live in NCO.IDE.A.120, "Operations under VFR". By day, it requires a means of measuring and displaying magnetic heading; time in hours, minutes and seconds; barometric altitude; indicated airspeed; and Mach number wherever speed limits are expressed in Mach. Note the clock: EASA requires a time display for day VFR, which the FAA's day list does not.
For night, NCO.IDE.A.120 adds a genuinely heavier fit: a means of measuring and displaying turn and slip, attitude, vertical speed and a stabilised heading, plus a means of indicating when the supply to the gyroscopic instruments is failing. In other words, EASA treats night VFR as needing the core instrument-flying panel, on the reasoning that a dark night can rob you of the horizon. Lights come under a separate rule, NCO.IDE.A.115 ("Operating lights"), which requires aeroplanes operated at night to carry an anticollision light system, position/navigation lights, a landing light, instrument and cockpit lighting, cabin lighting and a portable light at each crew station. The emergency locator transmitter sits in NCO.IDE.A.170. Because Part-NCO leans on airworthiness certification for the engine instruments the FAA lists explicitly, do not try to map the two lists item-for-item; compare them by outcome, not line by line.
Where EASA and the FAA genuinely differ
Three divergences are worth stating plainly, because each can catch a pilot moving between systems.
First, night instruments. EASA night VFR requires the core instrument-flying panel, attitude, turn-and-slip, vertical speed and a stabilised heading; FAA night VFR does not require any of them (the attitude, turn-and-slip and stabilised heading are FAA IFR items, and the vertical speed indicator is not an FAA requirement even for IFR). EASA's night VFR aeroplane is, in panel terms, closer to an instrument aeroplane.
Second, the landing light. EASA requires a landing light for all night operations under NCO.IDE.A.115; the FAA requires one for night VFR only when the aircraft is operated for hire. Same piece of equipment, opposite defaults.
Third, the day clock. EASA requires a means of displaying time for day VFR; the FAA's day list does not include a clock (it appears in the FAA's IFR list). A small thing, but a real difference in the letter of the rule.
The transponder is its own layer
Surveillance equipment is not part of the VFR instrument lists at all; it is triggered by airspace, and it applies whether you are VFR or IFR. Under the FAA, 14 CFR 91.215 requires an operable Mode C (altitude-reporting) transponder in Class A, B and C airspace; within the 30-nautical-mile "Mode C veil" around a Class B primary airport up to 10,000 ft MSL; above the ceiling and within the lateral boundaries of Class B or C up to 10,000 ft MSL; and generally at and above 10,000 ft MSL, excluding airspace at and below 2,500 ft above the surface. 14 CFR 91.225 then layers ADS-B Out over broadly the same airspace, though not identically: its 10,000-ft item covers Class E only, so some Class G at and above 10,000 ft needs a transponder but not ADS-B, and it adds one block the transponder rule does not, Class E over the Gulf of Mexico at and above 3,000 ft MSL within 12 NM of the US coastline. The mechanics of what these systems send are covered in our guides to squawk codes and transponders and Mode S and ADS-B.
Under EASA the carriage rule is short and airspace-conditional: NCO.IDE.A.200 requires an aeroplane to be equipped with a secondary surveillance radar transponder "where required by the airspace being flown", with all the required capabilities. Separately, SERA.13001 says that if you carry a serviceable transponder you must operate it throughout the flight, inside or outside SSR airspace, so a fitted transponder is not something you switch off to stay quiet. In the UK, which retains Part-NCO and SERA, the practical VFR trigger is often a transponder mandatory zone: enter one and the default requirement is to carry and operate a Mode S transponder, whatever the day or night lists say, unless you comply with alternative provisions agreed with the controlling authority (for example prior ATC permission or promulgated arrangements). The common thread across all three systems is that the transponder is an airspace duty layered on top of the operation's equipment, and it belongs on your planning checklist as its own question, alongside the documents you must carry.
A worked example
You plan a private VFR flight in a fixed-gear single with a standard airworthiness certificate, from a rural strip toward a city, and you may not get back until after dark.
For the day leg, you check the 91.205(b) list: airspeed, altimeter, magnetic compass, tachometer, oil pressure and temperature, fuel gauges, seat belts, ELT, all present; no retractable-gear indicator needed. Legal for day VFR.
Because you might return at night, you add the 91.205(c) items: position lights and an anticollision light system fitted, an adequate electrical source, and a spare set of fuses in the glovebox. You are flying privately, so the "for hire" landing light is not required, though yours works and you will use it. Under an EASA registration the same night return would demand more, the night instrument fit and a mandatory landing light, so if this were an EASA aeroplane you would confirm the attitude, turn-and-slip, vertical speed and stabilised heading instruments and the gyro-power warning before committing to a night arrival.
Finally the airspace question, independent of all that: your route skirts the 30-nautical-mile Mode C veil around the city's Class B airport, so under 91.215 you confirm your Mode C transponder is operable and, under 91.225, that your ADS-B Out is working, before you go anywhere near it. Day list, night additions, transponder layer: three separate checks, all satisfied, and only then is the aircraft legally equipped for the flight you actually intend.
Common pitfalls
- Confusing the two anticollision dates. The day rule's 11 March 1996 and the night rule's 11 August 1971 are different provisions; do not swap them.
- Assuming a night landing light is always required. Under the FAA it is required for night VFR only when operated for hire; under EASA it is required for all night operations.
- Expecting FAA night VFR to need the instrument panel. It does not; the attitude and turn-and-slip instruments are FAA IFR items, and the FAA does not require a vertical speed indicator even for IFR. EASA night VFR does require all of them.
- Folding the transponder into the VFR list. Transponder and ADS-B carriage is airspace-driven under separate rules (91.215, 91.225, NCO.IDE.A.200), not part of 91.205.
- Mapping the FAA and EASA lists line by line. They are structured differently; compare them by outcome, and check both against the current rule.
- Forgetting the UK triggers its own zones. A UK transponder mandatory zone requires Mode S carriage and operation by default, unless you comply with alternative provisions agreed with the controlling authority, regardless of the day or night equipment list.
In Pilot EFB
Pilot EFB is a study and planning companion for the equipment question: a place to keep the day and night VFR lists and the airspace triggers straight while you plan, alongside the rest of your briefing in one offline-first place. It does not inspect your aircraft, certify that a particular fit is legal, or decide whether you are equipped for the flight; that verdict rests with you, the aircraft's documents and a maintenance release, checked against the current rule for your registration and operation. Pilot EFB is not a certified Electronic Flight Bag, so treat it as a study and planning aid and confirm the required equipment from your official source of record before you fly.