Inoperative Nav Light, No MEL: Can You Legally Fly Day VFR and What Process Do You Follow?

Why This Question Trips Up So Many Checkride Candidates

You show up to fly, do your preflight, and discover the nav light is burned out. There is no Minimum Equipment List (MEL) on the aircraft. Your gut reaction might be to call it a down day and reschedule — but that instinct, while cautious, skips the entire regulatory process the FAA expects you to know. Examiners love this scenario precisely because it tests whether you understand the systematic framework of 14 CFR 91.213, or whether you just guess. The answer is not simply yes or no. The answer is a process.

Position lights — the red, green, and white nav lights on your aircraft — are required equipment, but only for specific operations. Knowing exactly when they are required, and what to do when they are broken, is the kind of airworthiness knowledge that separates prepared candidates from those who stumble through their oral exam.

What 91.205 Actually Requires for Day VFR

The first step in working through any inoperative equipment question is asking: is this item required for this specific flight? For day VFR operations, the equipment list lives in 14 CFR 91.205(b). You can remember it with the memory aid ATOMATOFLAMES or similar mnemonics. When you scan that list carefully, nav lights are not on it. Position lights are listed under 91.205(c), which covers night VFR operations — defined as flight between sunset and sunrise.

This distinction matters enormously. A broken nav light is a serious issue if you plan to fly after sunset, but for a local day VFR flight, the equipment is not required by the FARs governing that specific operation. Many students ground the aircraft immediately, not realizing that 91.205 draws a clear line between day and night requirements. Knowing where that line is drawn is fundamental airworthiness knowledge your examiner will expect you to cite confidently.

Walking Through the 91.213 Process Step by Step

Just because a nav light is not required for day VFR does not mean you can simply ignore the broken bulb and go fly. 14 CFR 91.213 establishes the process every pilot must follow when operating an aircraft without a MEL. Skipping this process — even for an item that is not required for your flight — is not legal. The aircraft must be properly documented before departure.

Here is how 91.213 works for an aircraft without a MEL:

• Check four sources: Determine whether the inoperative item is required by the Kinds of Operations Equipment List (KOEL) in the Pilot Operating Handbook, by the applicable FARs for the intended flight, by any Airworthiness Directives, or by the aircraft type certificate data sheet. If the item is required by any of these sources, the aircraft is grounded until it is repaired.
• Confirm the item is not required: For a day VFR local flight, nav lights pass this check. They are not required under 91.205(b), and assuming no AD or type certificate provision mandates them for this operation, you can proceed to the next step.
• Have a certificated A&P mechanic deactivate the equipment: This is a critical point many students miss. The pilot cannot simply slap a piece of tape over the switch and call it done. A certificated airframe and powerplant mechanic must deactivate the system and make an entry in the aircraft maintenance logbook documenting the inoperative equipment.
• Placard the switch as inoperative: Once the mechanic has made the logbook entry, the switch or control must be placarded with the word INOPERATIVE. This placard alerts any subsequent pilot that the equipment is intentionally deactivated and documented.

With those steps complete — the four-source check passed, the mechanic logbook entry made, and the placard in place — the aircraft is legal to fly day VFR. The paperwork is not bureaucratic busywork. It is the documented record that protects you, future pilots, and the legal airworthiness of that aircraft.

The Limits of Your Authorization and the Night Restriction

Clearing this aircraft for day VFR does not give you an open-ended green light. The authorization is bounded by the specific operation you evaluated it for. Because nav lights are required for night operations under 91.205(c), this aircraft cannot legally fly after sunset until the position light is repaired. If you find yourself tempted to stretch that local flight a few minutes past sunset, that temptation comes with real regulatory and safety consequences.

Your examiner may push you on exactly this boundary. A common follow-up is: what if your flight runs long and you find yourself airborne after sunset? The correct answer is that you have an aircraft that is not equipped for night VFR, and you need to land before sunset or declare the situation and get on the ground. Planning ahead — and recognizing the hard stop that the night VFR equipment requirement creates — demonstrates genuine aeronautical decision-making, not just memorized regulation.

Understanding 91.213 deeply also means understanding what you, as a pilot, are and are not authorized to do. You cannot make the logbook entry yourself. You cannot apply the placard without the supporting maintenance record. The mechanic is the required actor in this process, and conflating pilot authority with mechanic authority is one of the fastest ways to draw a frown from your examiner.

If you want to practice questions like this in a realistic oral exam format, try SimulatedCheckride.com.