These last couple of weeks you would have needed a very capable plane to fly across Europe. Like a DA42 with a wx radar and good training in how to use it. 
You won’t get a “random day / random time” despatch rate anywhere near 100% unless you have a TP/jet, radar, etc. and can do FL250+ very easily.
An IR does help; with a TB20 in N Europe it lifts the despatch rate from say 50-70% to say 80-90%. Full TKS would add 5% to that, which is actually quite a lot.
Most importantly it enables you to fly in what is basically really nice wx but which is not “VFR”. VFR, you can be sitting at a Class D airport, OVC010, cloud layer 2000ft thick, their ops manual says 1500ft min cloudbase for VFR, and you can sit there for days (I’ve done it).
And it dramatically transforms both flight planning and the act of flying A to B. CAS becomes irrelevant (unless doing Y or Z FP, UK Class G, a French Class D airport with nobody in the tower on a weekend, etc) and you can fly right across Italy and all the other mad crazy airspace.
My own dispatch rate has been close to 100%. The part that gets me here and there is when departing from a VFR-only field where they don’t let me depart to pick up IFR. That was recently the case at Sabadell LELL where I had to wait for the ceiling to reach 1500’. Before Sabadell TWR wouldn’t let me go.
Howard is based in the UK. I don’t think you’ll get such a dispatch rate with British weather.
My issue at Sabadell LELL is that it is a towered airport within class D airspace and it has no IAP. So regardless of what I and the plane can do, there is no other way than to depart VFR. I cannot self-declare IFR as would be possible in other places.
What about Special VFR? It should allow you to depart in sub VFR conditions.
Stephan_Schwab wrote:
This is just a picture from the other side at 9000’ on that day. I hope Howard has made it home by now.
Looks benign to me! Good visibility, no T-storms, and what appears to be good room between bases and ground!
I made it home today, albeit through some rather low cloud in certain places. Landed at Elstree a few hours ago.
Thanks for everyone’s support.
Howard
@AdamFrisch I keep wondering about doing an IR. The idea appeals to me enormously. However here are the reasons that I haven’t done it, which perhaps are common to others:
1. I really don’t have a good reason to fly…I just fly for fun. I don’t have family a long way away from home, nor business contacts that I have to fly to see. This is a pity. It means that I have no pressing reason to get a better dispatch rate.
2. My work is demanding, like many others here I’m sure. It means that finding the time to study in particular is difficult. I’m sure I could do the flying skills work at weekends and in weeks booked off. The exams however require a long period of concentrated work.
I’m hoping that the weak rumours about a soon-to-be-announced Basic IR prove to be correct (not the crappy EIR which apparently fewer than 5 people have undertaken). I’d like to be able to file IFR and fly competently without having to sit too many IR exams that are completely irrelevant. Actually, as a first step, I’d like EASA to recognise Europe-wide my IR(R) (IMCR) and let me fly IFR in non-class A, and instrument approaches. That would be a good step up in the first instance. Sadly I don’t make the rules.
Howard
Well done Howard
Most “leisure pilot” (you and me) IR is done in reasonable wx, and an IR is a great tool for the job.
The CB IR is OK, though the exams could be improved (reduced) from what I hear. They are still full of crap.
But when you do it, you will never want to go back.
