Filing IFR in VMC if not IR rated

If you have an EASA license, then it is illegal to fly IFR in VMC without an IR. It doesn’t matter what country you’re in.

FCL.600 IR — General
Except as provided in FCL.825, operations under IFR on an aeroplane, heli­copter, airship or powered-lift aircraft shall only be conducted by holders of a PPL, CPL, MPL and ATPL with an IR appropriate to the category of aircraft or when undergoing skill testing or dual instruction

Note that the rule says “IFR”, not “IMC”. FCL.825 is about the Enroute IR.

As always, AA, our airlaw guru, has the right quote a hand. Thanks.

boscomantico wrote:

As always, AA, our airlaw guru, has the right quote a hand.

Which hopefully qualifies as “first hand knowledge” as opposed to just remembering the law.

File VFR, fly there and tell ATC you want to practice IFR approaches. If there is not a lot of traffic and/or ATC is cool they will let you do it. If you don’t have a safety pilot next to you, don’t put an IFR-hat on and still watch outside – it’s less of a training but the only legal and safe one.

PapaPapa wrote:

Oh come on, don’t be “that” guy

No, hence the smiley. But admittedly, I don’t have the energy as A_A to dig through the legislation.

During IR training I filed VFR and asked ATC to practice approaches several times, but I was flying with an instructor.

Vladimir wrote:

File VFR, fly there and tell ATC you want to practice IFR approaches. If there is not a lot of traffic and/or ATC is cool they will let you do it.

I used to do that regularly when I only had the US IR and no access to an N-tail. What I found is that ATC would get a little confused when I asked them to do an IAP in VFR and sometimes just gave me an IFR clearance that I had to refuse. So it could pay to call ahead, tell them your intentions and ask if they think traffic will permit.

Peter wrote:

This is country dependent.

Airborne_Again wrote:

If you have an EASA license, then it is illegal to fly IFR in VMC without an IR. It doesn’t matter what country you’re in.

FCL.600 IR — General
Except as provided in FCL.825, operations under IFR on an aeroplane, heli­copter, airship or powered-lift aircraft shall only be conducted by holders of a PPL, CPL, MPL and ATPL with an IR appropriate to the category of aircraft or when undergoing skill testing or dual instruction

Note that the rule says “IFR”, not “IMC”. FCL.825 is about the Enroute IR.

For the US, it’s in 61.3:

(e) Instrument rating. No person may act as pilot in command of a civil aircraft under IFR or in weather conditions less than the minimums prescribed for VFR flight unless that person holds:
(1) The appropriate aircraft category, class, type (if required), and instrument rating on that person’s pilot certificate for any airplane, helicopter, or powered-lift being flown;
(2) An airline transport pilot certificate with the appropriate aircraft category, class, and type rating (if required) for the aircraft being flown;

…

61.3 is the US regulation requiring an instrument rating to act as PIC under IFR.

(e) Instrument rating. No person may act as pilot in command of a civil aircraft under IFR or in weather conditions less than the minimums prescribed for VFR flight unless that person holds:

(1) The appropriate aircraft category, class, type (if required), and instrument rating on that person’s pilot certificate for any airplane, helicopter, or powered-lift being flown;