do the BIR and be done within weeks.
No. To reach a useful IFR standard will take a given person a similar time whether it is the UK IMCR, the BIR, the CBIR…
The EIR might be less because of no approaches but then you just die, which is not really acceptable, hence it rightfully ended.
ATC do not care which bit of paper you have. You need to do what is needed for their workflow, and for your safety.
No. To reach a useful IFR standard will take a given person a similar time whether it is the UK IMCR, the BIR, the CBIR…
I was obviously referring to the training. And yes, with the BIR, it is a matter of weeks, not years. An IFR flight every week with a finished BIR in hand makes more sense than two years of training for the CB IR course.
The EIR might be less because of no approaches but then you just die, which is not really acceptable, hence it rightfully ended.
EIR doesn’t exist anymore.
Snoopy wrote:
EIR doesn’t exist anymore.
It still does in the UK.
Snoopy wrote:
And yes, with the BIR, it is a matter of weeks, not years
But this is all comparing apples with pears @Snoopy.
What do we count against what? Are you seriously considering that I would’ve done the BIR in 3 weeks but the CB-IR not, because of what? Sorry but that is not to the point here.
In my case I cannot do 3 weeks full-time training, it’s as easy as it is. Of course perfect from a training point of view. So for anyone who’s single, without personal life and responsibilities totally ok.
You can also “easily” do the CB-IR practical hours in 3 weeks, that is 20 days of 2 hours of flying each day and a final exam. So here we are again comparing apples with apples.
In my personal case I think I wouldn’t have needed the whole 40 hours as instrument training. So yes, from this point of view I would’ve been quicker / needed less hours if it would’ve been possible – as with the BIR. But what have I done in these 40 hours that has nothing to do with the training syllabus? A lot.
I now know my avionics by heart. Where are they, how are they used, what signal is shown on which display under which circumstances. Is there anything faulty? Which signals does the autopilot follow and which not? We did some significant debugging on my plane in the first maybe 10 hours. I’d never had achieved this alone, because I’d never have the capacity to play around with it while doing an approach alone. But with a very proficient instructor: no problem! That I consider as a very serious safety step. I’d never come to this level of detail and proficiency in this respect without the aid of my instructor.
I felt ice on my plane.
I had different instrument failures that led to some downtime, but I learned a lot from it. E.g. I had an alternator fail (field repair: cable was broken), vacuum pump disintegrated, my first Aspen PFD died in flight (not all at the same time), the marker beacon antenna wasn’t working properly. All fixed and improved by now and ready for action. So when my instructor finally started to do partial panel I just smiled. Yeah. Been there, done that. Gimme something serious. 
I have no doubt that I will pickup any big-size airport as an escape strategy, because I’ve been there already.
I have learned lots of easy “plans B” where I can find a landing spot. Or how to activate airfield lights on several airfields around my homebase in case I’d need it, coming home at night but with fog at my homebase (an absolutely possible use-case).
And a lot more. That doesn’t fit into the discussion “CB-IR vs BIR”. In fact I don’t see the point here for a discussion about CB-IR vs. BIR.
Maybe one could say that I should have focused more on the “goal”. My instructor did that regularly.
with the BIR, it is a matter of weeks, not years
Sorry but this a meaningless debate, with lots of goalpost moving.
An IR doesn’t take “years” unless you are fitting the training in around your “family life” or whatever. Or unless you are really useless and have lots of money to waste 
If you fly daily, say 2x a day (the most that most people say 40+ can withstand) then you can knock off the ~60hrs in, obviously, 1 month. I did that in Arizona in 2006, aged 48 then. I did the conversion in 2 weeks, about 25hrs, totally exhausted but a bloody good pilot after 2 weeks of hard no-GPS classical IFR. Well, bloody good pilot for the next month or so But almost nobody does this, due to “life factors”. Same with the PPL; you can do it in 1-2 months, but almost nobody does.
Most of the hassle of doing the IR is stuff which EASA never improved e.g. the scarcity of FTOs (lots of hotel stays), their reluctance to train in customer planes, etc. They improved on this indirectly via the 30hr freelance component in the CBIR but only some candidates can make use of that due to not many freelancing IR-qualified instructors (used to be called IRIs).
Udo’s experience is probably average for a motivated and capable private pilot.
It still does in the UK.
The EIR may exist in the UK but nobody is doing it. Although funnily enough (as often posted years ago) EIR+IMCR is actually practically equivalent to a full IR since the UK has no IAPs in Class A anymore.
Most of the hassle of doing the IR is stuff which EASA never improved
But EASA improved it. By offering BIR!
And a lot more. That doesn’t fit into the discussion “CB-IR vs BIR”. In fact I don’t see the point here for a discussion about CB-IR vs. BIR.
Maybe one could say that I should have focused more on the “goal”. My instructor did that regularly
Agreed. Thus my answer and suggestion of BIR vs CBIR was directed @werki
Excellent write-up which I found particularly interesting. Thank you Udo for taking the time.
