I thoroughly enjoy flying Single Pilot IFR, and in reality given that 60%+ of the time in Asia it is MVFR at best, I advise all the local wannbe aircraft owners out here to obtain an IR if they want any realistic prospect of using an aircraft for serious transport.
VFR here does not cut it for long cross country legs, and can be lethal – terrain, weather etc.
Once you have done SP IFR for a year or so on a regular basis, I found the workload to be very manageable with or without an AP.
I do not consider the AP a MEL item, and would/have not considered canceling a flight if it was inop.
I generally hand fly up to 10K Ft manually in any case, and disconnect the AP at around 5,000-3,000 Ft unless it is particularly busy airspace, or bad weather and I want a coupled approach. It keeps me in practice and I really enjoy flying the aircraft manually.
My AP has failed on two occasions and during the weeks in between getting parts I hand flew the aircraft. It was tiring, but very doable, especially as I still had a working Flight Director.
The first non AP flight was a little ropey in terms of accuracy, but I got progressively better with each flight at maintaining very accurate altitude and heading even in the upper flight levels.
For me it has gotten to the point that for a normal uneventful flight, I find a co-pilot quite intrusive just because I am used to doing it all on my own, and have a well proven set of flows/ SOP’s that I follow.
The few times I have been workload saturated have been occasions with poor radio reception, or the ridiculous need to be in contact with two controllers simultaneously overflying some countries out here.
A co-pilot would have been handy on those occasions, but certainly not essential.
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I looked it up and it is still valid national law
And this is for private flying? Wow.. I had no idea and could not have imagined such a requirement in my dreams.
It basically says all IFR must be a multicrew affair, so why even allow an IR with a PPL in the first place?
Single pilot IFR is a lot easier with a well equipped aircraft like the Cirrus with a good autopilot and a glass cockpit. If I fly single pilot IFR (which I do most of the time) than I use the autopilot all the time up to the DA on the approach.
About 90% of my flying is single pilot IFR. My practice is to hand fly about 75% of departures and approaches when I am alone, and to use the autopilot at all times if I have passengers which is relatively seldom.
My logic is that it is important both to remain current on hand flying but also on autopilot use in those phases of flight. YMMV!
It basically says all IFR must be a multicrew affair, so why even allow an IR with a PPL in the first place?
No, it just says you need an autopilot capable of maintaining heading and altitude. This is a very sensible requirement for single pilot IFR, however it really doesn’t have to be in the law…
This is a very sensible requirement for single pilot IFR, however it really doesn’t have to be in the law…
As I said in another thread, the one about instrument flying outside controlled airspace: German post-war constitution assigns a very high priority to the protection of the individual (after two decades when exactly the opposite, namely the sacrifice of as many indiviuals as possible, was practised). This includes protecting individuals from themselves. Germany was probably among the first countries that mandated seat belts in cars, helmets on motorcycles, parachutes in gliders and microlights, mandatory car and health insurance, …. This has probably saved many thousands of lives over the past 69 years, but taken some of the fun out of it (depending who you ask).
Yes, you’re correct Achimha, only the requirement to have someone on board would be “multi-crew”.
In general I don’t like regulations that require gadgets beyond the basic stuff, but on a personal level I agree that an A/P in its simplest form is of great assistance during IFR. It does take a lot of concentration to hand fly for hours in turbulence and zero visibility and it is tiring.
Thankfully I haven’t broken the German regulation so far, but that is purely by luck, as I was not aware of it…
Thankfully I haven’t broken the German regulation so far, but that is purely by luck, as I was not aware of it…
The LuftBO (“Betriebsordnung für Luftfahrtgerät”) only applies to aircraft on the German register (and to foreign aircraft operated by German operators). So as long as you don’t fly a “D” reg. aeroplane single hand IFR without autopilot you are not breaking any law 
I, on the other side, have broken this law repeatedly. But that was long enough ago that they can’t prosecute me any more. I didn’t really like it much anyway. Once I remember, I was flying back an old Cherokee for the flying school in really bad weather (turbulence and downpour for almost half an hour without interruption) and at some point had to get out the approach plate for my destination. I have my charts well sorted, so it only took an instant. But when I looked at the instruments again, I had gained over 500ft and the bank angle was past 90 degrees.
See, I’m lucky again, only SE reg so far… 
I, on the other side, have broken this law repeatedly. But that was long enough ago that they can’t prosecute me any more
Ha, you’re forgetting about the ZÜP (Zuverlässigkeitsüberprüfung, reliability check). They can deny you that based on your attitude, general lack of respect for rules. ZÜP is taken directly from Orwell and sadly was not stopped by the Constitutional Court. A really bad consequence of Sep 11.
I perhaps do things backwards to everybody else (not unusual for me ).
I do my hand flying in IMC practice in Class G, out of everybody’s way, during the local flights I do every week if I am not going anywhere for real, and do all real going-places flying on autopilot. When flying Eurocontrol IFR, non-deiced, a properly planned and executed flight is ~99% VMC so hand flying it would just get you tired for nothing achieved.
But this needs a zero tolerance attitude to system defects, which might cost more money but actually I spend very little on the plane compared to some. This is a lot easier on the N-reg than on the EASA-reg, because a lot of the time it avoids a flight to a dealer which is just a massive waste of time. I also have some avionics spares on the shelf, which I picked up from Americans who were throwing in a pile of eye candy. But equally I am reluctant to spend money on gear which would force a trip to any dealer to sort out.
