I think we all know that most new PPLs chuck in flying permanently within a year or two. One statistic allegedly from the UK CAA is that 90% do not renew their medical at the 2 year point / do not revalidate their PPL at the 2 year point.
But my Q is specifically on instrument capable (IR or the UK IMCR) pilots.
That community seems to be so very constant, with almost nobody entering. At any pilot meet-up, most of the IRs have had them for 10-30 years.
Very true. But if you ask most pilots who are starting out (either during their initial training or shortly after qualification) most will tell you that they want to get an IR in the future.
Yet very few do. Clearly something is wrong if so many fail to do what they intend.
Hi!
I think this has mainly to do with the considerable investment that is necessary to get an IR. Nobody wants to waste this after only two years. And then it is comparatively simple to revalidate an IR even without having flown because a yearly checkride is required anyway. A non-IR PPL could be revalidated the same way (no hours, checkride) but somehow for many pilots this seems to be a frightening thought.
The biggest issue is to have access to a decent IFR capable aircraft, most non-professional IR capable pilots are owners or group members. I would not dare to use a shagged UK club PA28 with minimum instrumentation standard in IMC. As owner you ask what's next (no offence to a member with that name). mode S, BRNAV, 8.33, LPV approval,.... digital com, ....
I have many friends in Germany and everyone waits for the EIR, but I have my doubts it will take off. Most clubs in Germany have no IFR equipped aircraft.
The biggest issue is to have access to a decent IFR capable aircraft
However, the Q is what has changed in the last 10 years, compared with any of the decades before that? Aircraft access should not have changed all that much - or has it?
My theory is that JAA killed the private IR business in 2000. I don't know about the rest of Europe but the UK had what was casually called a "700 hour route" whereby if you had 700hrs TT you could skip (I think - way before my time) the mandatory dual flight training which with JAA became 50/55hrs (SE/ME IR). Whenever I meet up with a bunch of "old" UK IR holders, it turns out most of them did it via the 700hr route.
When I was doing the PPL, it was clear that an IR had to be done to go anywhere usefully, but at the time (2001) a PPL/IR required the 14 ATPL exams. I looked at them and gave up on it. I now hear that was fixed soon after, reducing it to 7 exams.
I have many friends in Germany and everyone waits for the EIR
Do you perhaps mean the CBM IR?
However, the Q is what has changed in the last 10 years, compared with any of the decades before that? Aircraft access should not have changed all that much - or has it?
Yes, in Germany I would say that the number of IFR equipped and approved aircraft has shrunk dramatically in the last 15 years.
From the late 70s to the late 90s, there was a twenty year period during which the requirements for IFR hardly changed - dual navcomms, ADF, DME, transponder and markers. Then in the late nineties, it all started to change: BRNAV, FM-immunity, Mode-S and now 8.33.
Most club aircraft are of the late 70s vintage and many clubs used to have several state-of-the art IFR aircraft well into the late nineties. That has changed; most clubs are no longer willing to make big extra expenses for just a handful of IFR rated members. Yes, it's also due to the famous german annual IFR avionics check but not only. It's also about the investment into new equipment, of which the biggest one of course was BRNAV.
I think this has mainly to do with the considerable investment that is necessary to get an IR
Plus the considerable inconvenience. Those that do have the finances are currently lumbered with relatively few organisations that offer the training and in many cases this involves many hours of travel +/- overnight hotels.
Hardly ideal to promote its uptake.
When I was doing the PPL, it was clear that an IR had to be done to go anywhere usefully
I did my PPL IR last winter, we were 6 students who attended the course and I was the only one with more than 2 years of flying experience. The other students were PPL pilots who had quickly realized that in order to go anywhere you need an IR. 4 of them already owned their own aircraft.
I don't think this is a unique group, most people who actually get an IR rating are the ones who will use the aircraft for touring and I think they tend to do it quite soon after their PPL.
With that said, I'm the exception - I got my IR 8 years after getting my PPL and I don't have the possibility use the aircraft in my profession (yet) :-)
Good afternoon, I think the biggest obstacle on the way to the IR is the theory exam. When you decide after PPL to continue with IR the PPL theory is still kind of fresh in your memory and doing the IR theory is not that demanding. But when you try to imagine for pilots who have done their PPL many years ago you have to start from scratch again and it is a very time consuming learning, most will need 1 or 1,5 years for it. Another point is that IR will be in the region of 15.000 + Euros. For pilots who can't afford their own plane it is often senseless to invest the time and to money for an IR. regards Detlev
One counter-point I would make is that the IR has never made much sense if you are renting, because it is typically most useful for longer trips where you are staying somewhere for 1 night at least, and that has always been expensive via rental because the schools never liked renters doing that.
The school where I did my PPL would allow it subject to a minimum billing of 3 hours wet flying time per day away, so every day the plane was sitting parked away cost you (in 2001 money) about £400 - a damn nice hotel in Switzerland.
Have there really been people with IRs just renting?
I do know one IR who used to rent the "147 group" SR22 for about £300/hr. But AFAIK he never actually used his IR. So I have never known anybody who was renting and flew IFR on those flights.
