There was currently a conference about Air-resuce systems with Helicopters in germany
GER has 80 Stations of EC 135 and by advisory, between emerg-call and
landing of helicopter on site is a max-time is given, average is 9-12min.
Many flights were recently not possible due to partly IMC enroute , even that
accident-place and hospital was VMC, but IMC enroute like fog on /at
mountains etc.
So there is a public pressure since today no primary resucue flights can be performed at IMC or night.
I talked to leading chief-pilots @ this conference:
The BMVI (german ministery of transport) said there is a working group
for this, EASA, LBA , DFS, BMVI and Rescue organsitation are members :
Since “IFR in G” is standard in other countries it will be probably soon
the case to allow it for these special flights to increase safety of this missions and to offer a better SAR service.
From there , it will be a legal thing “only” to extend it for GA, AOPA and
others will be active then, I guess
For the time DFS is blocking it because of their useless “MRVA” argument (minimum radar
vector altitude) which is just an argument to block IFR in airspace "G since they won´t give up their sovereign, unique position they have in controlled airspace.
So time is with us:-)
Stefan
CPL-IR
FI IR/CPL
The bad news is that AOPA is not in the working group, so we have no one to put the GA issues on the table.
Exactly. What could ever be expected from a working group composed of EASA, LBA, DFS and BMVI…?
Sorry to be pessimistic here, but I think that nothing much will change in Germany. A pity, as it will make the dreaded EIR almost wothless around here…
I don’t agree that it makes the EIR worthless. Most of the time the cloudbase is sufficient to make a VFR approach. All you need to do is to find a way out of controlled airspace which is in VFR, so you descend IFR in Class E and then cancel IFR while still in Class E (or B/C/D).
The purpose of the EIR is to allow people who do not want to take off or land in hard IMC the opportunity to use the airways. Suitable conditions exist most of the time, and generally the kind of pilot who is likely to want an EIR (relatively low experienced leisure pilot) will only want to fly if the weather is reasonable. Who wants to go to the beach in the rain? 
I don’t agree that it makes the EIR worthless. Most of the time the cloudbase is sufficient to make a VFR approach. All you need to do is to find a way out of controlled airspace which is in VFR, so you descend IFR in Class E and then cancel IFR while still in Class E (or B/C/D).
The purpose of the EIR is to allow people who do not want to take off or land in hard IMC the opportunity to use the airways. Suitable conditions exist most of the time, and generally the kind of pilot who is likely to want an EIR (relatively low experienced leisure pilot) will only want to fly if the weather is reasonable. Who wants to go to the beach in the rain?
Well, let’s not get into a discussion of the EIR here. I’ll just say that I don’t agree with the above on many accounts.
In Germany, in many places, today, you cannot legally descend any lower than 3000 feet AGL under IFR. There is a lot in between an OVC030 day and “hard IMC”.
All you need to do is to find a way out of controlled airspace which is in VFR, so you descend IFR in Class E and then cancel IFR while still in Class E
As long as DFS keeps it’s silly MVRA policy, there is no legal way to do exactly this in Germany.
The DFS opinion seems to be to use some nearby IAP for cloud breaking and then continue VFR
with the EIR? No IAP possible.
If there is no local IAP?
On the EIR, no IAP, no SID and no STAR.
… so it remains a question how to get below an OVC with a base below the MRVA …
