To illustrate my level of boredom, I have been digging through the regs to find an answer for a hypothetical situation. But can't come up with a definitive answer as the regs seem to be about either a small aircraft with steam guages in PVT ops or airlines operating out of capital city aerodromes.
This is the situation. (hypothetrical)
Airfield, lets say Mansfield Vic, an ALA that's privately owned....as in your own private landing strip. No instrument approaches available. All required runway lights for night ops.
Terrain - Mansfiled is in a bowl with high terrain on almost every side about 10nm away in each direction.
Aircraft - MTOW 6489 kg (Kinagir 360) ME Turbine. Has all the bells and whistles.
Pilot - has every rating needed & is current.
Fuel is not an issue
Wx, CAVOK
Mr moneybags has 2 aircraft. A new G58 Baron and a new Kingair 360.
One night, a typical summer night that's just beautiful, he decides to do a trip round the Melbourne (Port Philip) bay. You know one of those night that's just begs for a scienic over the bay. The regs say he can do it in the Baron. But can he do it in the 6489 kg Kingair?
Part 2 of the question is, for a trip home on another flight, could he plan IFR in the same Kingair to a nearby aerodrome with an instrument approach then downgrade to NVFR for the last 30nm to home base. Assuming WX conditions are NVFR.
All NVFR regulations are aimed at aircraft not above 5700 kg.
Will the advent of wearable HUDS with EVS systems require a re-write of the regulations. There is some interesting tech about to filter down to smaller aircraft. You can alsways see the terrain from synthetic vision no matter where you look.