Just to clarify the position, are these gCAP plates actually legal for the purposes of a JAA Initial Instrument Rating?
Yippipie,
IO540's reply explains the situation, as I understand it, for a private flight. Since you specifically ask about using for an initial IR, though, I'm not sure it's the whole story.
The CAA are currently quite keen to promote the idea that all CPL/IR training should be done as per a commercial operation. This goes right down to getting the school I work for to create a "standard" plog, and insisting on students using this in flight (as oposed to the previous situation where we had a range of plogs, or students could choose to use their own). The reason behind this is that this is what would happen in a commercial operation - you would be given a plog by your company (probably already filled in, depending on the type of operation) and you would have to use it.
Following on from this, for initial IR training you will be expected to use whatever plates the school uses as standard. So the answer to your question is almost certainly No.
Having said that, I don't believe this is written down anywhere, so if you were doing a PPL/IR (with no intention of getting a CPL), then they may be prepared to accomodate you. After all, the reasoning behind the No doesn't apply to you. I think it would be something you would have to discuss with your school, and they would probably have to discuss with their local CAA examination centre.
That's my opinion - I don't know of any rules relating to this, but there might be something written somewhere which contradicts my opinion which I'm not aware of.
FFF
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