Jacko wrote:
It’s not easy to obey both rules simultaneously.
You are not flying it in tight rivers then 
Jacko wrote:
In the USA, when taxiing a floatplane up a waterway, the rule is to leave the green lateral marks to port. In the EU, we leave them to starboard. It’s not easy to obey both rules simultaneously.
That’s the problem with the different kinds of rules. We have
If a pilot with license issued by country X is flying an aircraft registered in country Y in the airspace of country Z, (s)he needs to obey
Standardisation and harmonisation of rules are good things!
@Jacko as I wrote I do not know the FAR regs for an IR licenced pilot nor for an N reg aircraft but they exist. And it is my understanding that they are different in certain areas. They could be more or less penalizing than EASA IR regulations. Under ICAO and has been AIUI transferred into EASA an N reg pilot flying in EASA land has 4 sets of regulations to take into account.
1/ FAR regulations with regards IR flight
2/ FAR regulations with regards to the aircraft
3/ EASA regulations with regards to the aircraft
(eg does it have a C of A)
4/ EASA regulations regarding IR flight.
I simply point out that if one says one thing and another sets a different regulation, the most penalizing must be adhered to.
Consider an FAA IR licenced pilot, flying a G reg aircraft, loses control during an IFR approach to an airport in Greece, who do you think would investigate the accident and what regulations should the pilot have adhered to?
Sorry posts crosses A_A already answered Jacko very succinctly.
MikeWhiskey wrote:
Why should someone (not holding any other IR-ratings, hence starting from scratch) go for the Non-ICAO BIR when the extra effort of earning the CBIR over the BIR seems relatively limited…?
As a potential candidate here is why:
Patrick wrote:
As a potential candidate here is why: I’m interested in instrument flying, but for the time-being, not interested in “hard” IFR flying down to the lowest minima. I do not currently see why I should maintain currency for a rating that I’m not fully using, so the BIR would suite me well. It is not a one-way road: If I find after flying on the BIR some time that I need the CB-IR, I will have gained already more instrument time which can be used as experience towards the CB-IR, so the additional effort (including of course an additional examination) should be minimal.
Well said.
I am pretty much on the same page as Patrick. For me as a renter and purely recreational pilot, there is neither a need nor the means of flying IFR “down to the lowest minima”. However, a BIR would come in handy to fly on days with the typical North German OVC012 or similar weather.
If the IMC rating existed on mainland Europe, it would probably be all I need (there being no class A anywhere within 500 nm, I wouldn’t even be much restricted by its limitations). Alas, the BIR has to become our IR(R), or our “poor man’s IR”.
Patrick wrote:
As a potential candidate here is why:I’m interested in instrument flying, but for the time-being, not interested in “hard” IFR flying down to the lowest minima.
I do not currently see why I should maintain currency for a rating that I’m not fully using, so the BIR would suite me well.
It is not a one-way road: If I find after flying on the BIR some time that I need the CB-IR, I will have gained already more instrument time which can be used as experience towards the CB-IR, so the additional effort (including of course an additional examination) should be minimal
Yes I agree and there two folds to it getting 1/ getting the rating and potential upgrade for the mission and 2/ maintain it or let it lapse or renew when you are not flying that much
At the moment if you have an IR and stopped that flying or missed the show for 1 year for X reason, you may not come back to it anytime soon just by yourself, having something to fallback on before heading back to an FE for signature will help, in the UK everybody does this with SEIR or MEIR, they just let it lapse to IMCr rating before getting it back when they feel in shape in few years (same story for TMG/SLMG, SEP/SSEA…)
I don’t think I ever went beyond BIR minima for arrivals, but probably once or twice for departure, so it perfectly fit the bill for me as rating if it is easy to maintain (getting rating in 1 year is easy, keeping it alive for 10 years is the hard bit)
arj1 wrote:
AFAIK no upgrade path, but you can do CBIR theory, 10hrs at the school and get the CBIR practical.
There certainly is an upgrade route. See point 55 of the amending regulation. It’s similar to the upgrade from a third-country ICAO IR.
‘9.Applicants for the competency-based modular IR who hold a BIR in accordance with point FCL.835 and who have received at least 10 hours of instrument flight time under instruction at an ATO may be credited towards the training course referred to in paragraph 4, provided that all competency-based instrument rating topics have been included in that BIR training, and assessed by the ATO that provides the competency-based modular flying training course.
10. Applicants for the competency-based modular IR who hold a BIR and have experience of at least 50 hours of flight time under IFR as PIC on aeroplanes, shall:
(a) at an ATO:
(i) be assessed as having an acceptable standard of competency-based instrument rating theoretical knowledge;
(ii) receive appropriate flight training to extend IFR privileges in accordance with FCL.605.IR [standard IR minima];
(b) after completion of (a);
(i) successfully complete the skill test for the IR in accordance with Appendix 7;
(ii) demonstrate orally to the examiner during the skill test that they have acquired an adequate level of theoretical knowledge of air law, meteorology, and flight planning and performance.’
I simply point out that if one says one thing and another sets a different regulation, the most penalizing must be adhered to.
In this case (minima for an IFR approach in Europe) the USA explicitly does not “set a different regulation”, due to the deliberate use of a double negative in the FAR. Note that “not inconsistent with” does not mean “consistent with”.
But the point which you raise is a perfectly good one, namely that many EASAphiles will jump at any opportunity to make life difficult for N-reg (and presumably now G-reg) owners and pilots. Not that the reverse is necessarily untrue either.
As for standardisation being good, I do agree, up to a point.
Patrick wrote:
As a potential candidate here is why:I’m interested in instrument flying, but for the time-being, not interested in “hard” IFR flying down to the lowest minima.
I do not currently see why I should maintain currency for a rating that I’m not fully using, so the BIR would suite me well.
It is not a one-way road: If I find after flying on the BIR some time that I need the CB-IR, I will have gained already more instrument time which can be used as experience towards the CB-IR, so the additional effort (including of course an additional examination) should be minimal.
I am actually on the same side. My point is towards how much effort one can reduce when going for the BIR instead of CBIR. CBIR requires 40h training and BIR seems to have less, let´s guess out of the blue you need 5h less (my thought process: EIR needs 15h, so approaches etc for adding CBIR-privileges then are 25h; I guessed 20% less hours on that = 5h – but that´s just a wild assumption). So from another perspective, based on my assumption, for adding just a couple of hours flight training you get to an ICAO-IR rating and also can convert to a FAA-IR easier, FWIW.
On theory training, hopefully they cut out more noise out of the syllabus. However they will continue to use the question database also used for CBIR etc. So hopefully there will be less stuff to learn, but the question remains how much less it will be in the exams. And it will be three exams (one for each part of BIR), not just three subjects.
Further, what will be the transition process when holding the BIR and later upgrading to CBIR: Do you have to retake the CBIR-theory exam (I would be surprised if they create a separate theoretical exam for upgrading to CBIR), next of the remaining training flights?
And btw, no one forces you to fly down to minima, so even if earned the CBIR you are free to fly within BIR-limits……
