FAR ninety-one dot two oh five and the equipment list that keeps your airplane legal for day and night VFR

FAR 91.205 is the federal aviation regulation that defines exactly what instruments and equipment must be installed and working in your airplane before you can legally fly under visual flight rules. For day VFR, the required equipment is remembered with the mnemonic A TOMATO FLAMES. For night VFR, you add everything in the mnemonic FLAPS. Understanding these lists transforms your preflight from a casual glance at the panel into a deliberate, regulation-backed equipment check.

What Does FAR 91.205 Actually Cover?

FAR 91.205 is organized into sections, but the two that matter most for private pilots and everyday flying are paragraph B (day VFR) and paragraph C (night VFR). Night doesn’t replace the day list — it builds on top of it. Everything required for day VFR is also required at night, plus additional items.

What Equipment Is Required for Day VFR? (A TOMATO FLAMES)

The classic mnemonic A TOMATO FLAMES covers all required instruments and equipment for day VFR flight:

• A — Altimeter. Your pressure altitude instrument. Without it, you cannot maintain altitude legally or practically.
• T — Tachometer. One for each engine. This shows RPM and is your primary indication of what the engine is doing.
• O — Oil pressure gauge. For each engine. If you don’t know your oil pressure, you don’t know if your engine is about to seize.
• M — Magnetic direction indicator. This is the magnetic compass — the wet compass mounted on the windshield, not your heading indicator or GPS. It’s required because it works without electrical power.
• A — Airspeed indicator. Essential for maintaining safe airspeeds in all phases of flight.
• T — Temperature gauge. For each liquid-cooled engine. Most training aircraft (Cessna 172, Piper Cherokee) are air-cooled, so this typically doesn’t apply. Know the rule even if it doesn’t affect your airplane.
• O — Oil temperature gauge. For each engine. Different from oil pressure — pressure confirms circulation, temperature warns of overheating. You need both.
• F — Fuel gauge. For each tank. Aviation fuel gauges are notoriously inaccurate. The FAA only requires them to be accurate at one reading: empty. Everything above that is essentially a suggestion, which is why smart pilots track fuel burn mathematically and visually check tank levels.
• L — Landing gear position indicator. Required only for aircraft with retractable gear. Fixed-gear trainers are exempt.
• A — Anti-collision lights. Required even for day VFR. This means your rotating beacon or strobe lights. The PIC may turn them off if they create a safety hazard (such as blinding nearby aircraft during taxi), but they must be installed and operational.
• M — Manifold pressure gauge. For each altitude engine with a constant-speed propeller. Most basic trainers with fixed-pitch props don’t have one.
• E — ELT (Emergency Locator Transmitter). Must be installed and operational, with certain exceptions under FAR 91.207 — including training flights within 50 nautical miles of the departure airport.
• S — Seat belts. For every occupant. Aircraft manufactured after 1986 also require shoulder harnesses for front seats.

What Additional Equipment Is Required for Night VFR? (FLAPS)

For night VFR, add the FLAPS items to the full day VFR list:

• F — Fuses. One complete set of spare fuses, or three of each kind required, accessible to the pilot in flight. If your aircraft uses circuit breakers instead of fuses, this requirement doesn’t apply.
• L — Landing light. Required only if the aircraft is operated for hire. A private pilot flying their own airplane is not legally required to have one at night. However, flying at night without a landing light is a poor decision — it’s how you see the runway, how others see you, and how you spot wildlife on the taxiway.
• A — Anti-collision lights. Listed again under night requirements for emphasis. Required both day and night.
• P — Position lights (navigation lights). Red on the left wingtip, green on the right wingtip, white on the tail. These are how other pilots determine your direction of travel. If your position lights aren’t working, you are not flying at night.
• S — Source of electrical energy. An adequate source of electrical energy (alternator and battery) for all installed electrical and radio equipment. At night, your entire lighting, radio, and navigation capability depends on a reliable electrical system.

How Do You Handle Broken Equipment?

This is where FAR 91.205 intersects with FAR 91.213 (the inoperative equipment regulation) in a way that matters on every preflight.

Scenario: A position light is burned out at night. Position lights are on the night VFR required list. You’re grounded until it’s fixed. No wiggle room.

Scenario: That same position light is burned out during the day. Position lights aren’t on the day VFR list. But you can’t stop there. You must also check the aircraft’s type certificate data sheet and the equipment list in the POH to see if the position light is listed as required equipment for that specific airplane. If it’s not required by any of those sources, you can placard it inoperative, deactivate or remove it, and fly legally.

Scenario: Your ELT battery has expired. An ELT with an expired battery is considered inoperative. Check the exceptions in FAR 91.207 — training flights within 50 nautical miles of departure, certain ferry flights, and design/testing aircraft may be exempt.

Three regulations work together as pieces of the same puzzle:

1. 91.205 — the FAA’s minimum required equipment list
2. Type certificate and POH equipment list — may require additional items
3. 91.213 — the process for determining if you can fly with something broken

What Will the Examiner Ask on the Checkride?

On the private pilot oral exam, the designated pilot examiner will almost certainly test your understanding of required equipment. Expect scenario-based questions: “It’s 8 PM in December, you’re planning a cross-country, and your oil temperature gauge isn’t working. Can you go?”

Work through it logically. Oil temperature gauge is on the day VFR list, required for each engine. If it’s not working, you’re grounded day or night — unless you can find an approved exemption or MEL, which most small training aircraft don’t have.

The examiner wants to see that you understand the logic, not just the list.

How to Actually Learn This

Memorizing mnemonics on flashcards is a start, but there’s a better method. Sit in the cockpit and physically touch each item on the list. Point to the altimeter. Point to the tach. Touch the compass. Go through every letter of A TOMATO FLAMES and then FLAPS. It takes two minutes and burns the list into your memory in a way that flashcards never will. It also makes your preflight more thorough because you’re confirming each instrument is present and working rather than glancing at the panel and assuming everything looks right.

A practical tool: make a laminated checklist card with A TOMATO FLAMES on one side and FLAPS on the other. Before every flight — especially when something isn’t working perfectly — cross-reference the broken item against the list.

Why Every Item on the List Exists

The equipment list in 91.205 is the minimum standard, not the ceiling. Every item exists because someone had a very bad day without it. The altimeter is there because pilots flew into terrain. Fuel gauges are there because pilots ran out of fuel. Position lights are there because aircraft collided at night. These aren’t arbitrary bureaucratic requirements — they’re lessons learned the hardest way possible.

The regulation keeps you legal. Your judgment keeps you alive. Just because a GPS isn’t on the required list doesn’t mean you should fly a cross-country without one if that’s what you trained with. Just because a landing light isn’t required for a private pilot at night doesn’t mean you should launch into darkness without it. Build your own margin of safety on top of the regulatory floor.

Key Takeaways

• Day VFR requires everything in the A TOMATO FLAMES mnemonic: Altimeter, Tachometer, Oil pressure, Magnetic compass, Airspeed indicator, Temperature gauge (liquid-cooled), Oil temperature, Fuel gauges, Landing gear indicator, Anti-collision lights, Manifold pressure gauge, ELT, and Seat belts.
• Night VFR adds everything in FLAPS: Fuses, Landing light (for hire), Anti-collision lights, Position lights, and Source of electrical energy.
• When equipment is broken, work through 91.205, the POH equipment list, and 91.213 together to determine if the flight is legal.
• The required list is a minimum floor — good pilots add their own safety margin above what the regulation demands.
• Practice in the cockpit by physically touching each required instrument during preflight rather than relying on memorization alone.