Many pilots in France complained that the IR was too long, too complicated , too inconvenient and too expensive to get. remember also that we have no IMC rating here. And flying with a layer of clouds can be both dangerous and impossible when you have to cross restricted zones starting at ground level and ending higher than the clouds bases (military high speed corridors in particular, in the NE of France.)
The head of the DGAC who is a private pilot decided to find a solution. He guessed that EASA would need much time to find out one, so he decided to do it himself. Of course, all the pilots who get this national IR hope that it will be possible to easily convert it into a private eruropean IR when it exists. The DGAC has taken compliancy measures when it designed the syllabus in order to increase this likelihood.
Remember also that for us French, flying in a foreign country is not as easy as for you because we have to master a foreign langage, at least english. Most French private pilots almost never fly out of France.
Australian private instrument rating (PIFR) is also valid ONLY within Australia
The Australian PIFR is modular. It starts with enroute privileges only (like the proposed EASA EIR) and you can add various approach and departure privileges in piece-meal fashion until you end up with the equivalent of a full IR....maintaining the rating is on a BFR (or AFR as it is called in Oz) basis...a pilot with a full IR (or Command Instrument Rating as they call it for some reason) can apply for and get the PIFR (which can only be used for private operations), so that when his or her IR is out of currency they can fly on their PIFR.... each of the various add-on modules needs to be added (and maintained) separately....this includes separate approvals for ILS, VOR, GPS, SID, STAR, NDB etc.....Training and expected performance are the same as for the CIR
