It's actually a good point whether EU-OPS apply.
I am sure they do not apply to the private pilot flying somewhere for real, in the areas we are talking about. But I am not sure they do not apply to somebody doing the ICAO IR to JAA IR conversion training at a UK FTO.
As BP mentions, I have an FAA IR (CPL/IR in fact), with the IR since 2006. I've been doing the 15hr conversion course to a JAA
PPL/IR, and have
completed that. What I don't know is whether that course was an "approved course" i.e. a course approved by the UK CAA for that FTO to run, or whether it was an "ad hoc" bit of training. I think it is the latter, and this may well determine whether (and to what extent) the stuff that features in that FTO's CAA approval is required. For example I do not need to wear the pilot uniform
I also do not need to use the specific kneeboard which is in their approval (a friend of mine who did a
CPL/IR had to use a specific kneeboard and had to organise the papers on it in a specific way). I was told I have to use their plog form, which I did use despite it being near useless for any real flying.
The 170A (which is a "pre test test") examiner may have been applying some of their "approved course" rules, but I really have no idea. I have finished there now. I just wondered if there was some (bizzare) reason for using Southampton as the alternate...
The point about choosing an alternate in case of equipment failures is an excellent one.
Under FAA rules if your filed destination has only a GPS IAP then you cannot file an alternate with only a GPS IAP - IIRC. I think this rule is widely disregarded in as much as people file alternates which they have no intention of ever using, which is legal because once airborne you can divert anywhere you like (in the USA, this really works, because there is no PPR/PNR and most airports are H24 with PCL, etc etc).
Most IFR planes have two NAV receivers capable of LOC/GS and two indicators (though usually only NAV1 can drive the autopilot) but they usually have only one LOC/GS antenna. And these antennae do fail - both in the antenna and in the wiring to it and in subsequent signal processing. I once flew a really crappy VOR approach (on which I used the VOR rather than the GPS OBS mode - something I almost never do
) and it turned out to be a very subtly
duff KN72 signal converter which generated incorrect HSI deviation bar and to/from flag indications but failed to drop the flag into view. I've also had, on another occassion, an internal break in one of the two VOR/LOC antennae which produced a total blind spot on a particular bearing; this was revealed by flying a full 360 orbit some distance from a VOR.