"Plus it is a portable device which brings another can of worms. No doubt it works but how do you "certify" it and what are the rules going to be.
It ain't VFR, Night VFR or IFR as you know it. We are talking about Transport Category aircraft and regular pax ops here not the military."
It doesn't have to be rocket science! There are a lot of legacy opinions and stuff which needs to be worked through with the relevant authorities, yes however its worth it - we had some really tenacious guys here in oz who kept banging away until we finally moved into the 21 st century. Downunder (and many other places around the world) NVG is commonly used on Civil SAR/HEMs ops and they are even permitted for Marine Pilot Transfer ops out to ships - although not sure if anyone uses them in that application yet.
We can operate NVFR or IFR category using goggles - having shot an approach to minima's not that long ago, having NVGs donned gave me a massive increase in situational awareness off the non precision approach in a low light environment! There are massive amounts of flexibility benefits which goggles give for all sorts of operations and they only become apparent once you start using the things! Operated to rigs, winched off boats etc with/without NVG - to me a no brainer and is one of the rare times where one would say - once you try black (nights) you would definitely go back (to NVG)
