[RANT]
Howard Hughes and Zapp - top of the class.
You appear to be the only ones who have got the guts of the night IF issue from - surprise, surprise - the CAR Definitions! It's funny how so many people here have posted moaning and bleating about this being a thread every year, but they still get it wrong! Maybe it should be here every 6 months?
It seems many people should check the definitions in the front of the CARs of both Instrument Flight and Instrument Meteorological Conditions. Then check that of VMC and follow its lead to VFR flight. A good understanding of same would save much irrelevant twaddle every year and erroneous statements in this thread. Remember IMC is defined as not VMC which is in turn determined by those VFR flight distances from cloud.
Unless the CARs and CAOs have changed since September 2009, one CAN log IF on a pitch black night with no external references. The category of operation (IFR or VFR) is irrelevant. All that matters is that it is completely black out there and you are flying with sole reference to instruments. These conditions are less common than many people think.
Refer to the following thread where it is explained in detail by me (and others) 6 years ago.
http://www.pprune.org/dg-p-reporting...g-hours-3.html
And the list of points that BombsGone gave on page one in this thread are from an obselete blue AIC that is no longer - most likely as it contradicted the CARs and CAOs.
The fact that it still exists in the front of many logbooks does not make it "straight from CASA" nor correct.
[/RANT]