Flat land and low clouds and disjoint airspace, but honestly 2500ft agl cloud-base for VMC ??
In the other hand it was the only country banning VFR on top (pre-SERA/FCL) and requiring 10km visibility for SVFR
The same as asking why only Switzerland and France have MOU ratings
To be more precise: It’s the only country with two IFR ratings ;-)
Might be the same reason why some Inuit are said to have 40 different words for “snow” …
The Sami people have more than 300 words for “snow” on the other hand, how many EASA/European words are there for *pilot licence/rating" ?
Ibra wrote:
2500ft agl cloud-base for VMC ??
Huh?
Why the UK is the only country with the IMC Rating
I don’t know. Maybe it wants to be different?
I would have thought Canada, Greenland, Iceland and some of the Scandinavian countries with similar climates may have also wanted something similar? Or did they feel an ICAO-complaint IR is enough?
They didn’t make an ICAO-compliant IR such a ballache to get that most private pilots simply don’t have the time or inclination.
@Airborn_Again just some dodgy pre-SERA/FCL non-ICAO junk that ATS had in their MATS and pilots in ANO for VFR in class D or SVFR in class A that required 10km visibility, 2500ft ceiling, no VFR on top for vanilla legacy PPL then those having the IMCr were exempt
The IMCR was carefully structured to keep “amateurs” out of the “professionals’ airspace”, by not allowing access to Class A.
That, de facto, prevents flights in the Eurocontrol system, which also keeps “amateurs” out of the “professionals’ airspace”.
It is a scheme to allow private pilots to drill holes in clouds in Class D+G, and to fly IAPs in D+G in IMC, while absolving ATC from any obligation to issue or honour any form of a proper enroute clearance. Your clearance is only as specified – just like in VFR.
A perfect and necessary quid pro quo
It is a very good rating. But it would not be politically accepted in any country where there is little or no Class A. In Europe, only UK and Italy have lots of Class A.
Peter wrote:
In Europe, only UK and Italy have lots of Class A.
France? Netherlands? Spain? They all have chunks of Class A. Of course, not as much as in the UK.