Getting closer to my FAA IR with training in real IMC

Good luck with your IR training/checkride Stephan.
What made you decide to do the JAA IR over the EASA IR?
Are you planning to convert it to an EASA license?

There is a whole pile of reasons why the IR has a much higher pilot population penetration in the USA

• can do it at your old PPL school
• the flights can go anywhere
• can even do it as a trip around the USA (David here did just that)
• just one written exam
• checkride with a freelance examiner, usually based at the school

etc…

but the USA also has many other factors which make people get it and keep it e.g.

• loads of airports (= high utility value in GA)
• loads of airports with IAPs (no tower ATC needed)
• airports open decent hours, often H24 (even untowered)
• a unified airspace system (an FAA IR holder can fly anywhere in the USA; no special “operational tricks” needed)

EASA has now made it substantially easier to get the IR but the above factors (the first bunch of which are totally based on revenue/ job protection) are not changing – yet.

So I am expecting a gradual increase in IR holders, but nothing revolutionary.

It’s fun to read US forums… people there talk about flying like it was something you “just do”. And IFR is also something you “just do”. And they are 99.9% polite. Whereas in Europe, it is easy to get jumped on and get your head bitten off because you said something “non standard”. For example, on one US site I recall only one massive blow-up in years – and it was done by a European! One of the things I wanted in EuroGA is to be like the US forums, and it has pretty well succeeded.

What I do see in my future that I will probably stop flying VFR for anything cross-country and always file IFR. However, that may turn out differently than I think at the moment. In the US we’ve been flying IFR at just 3000’ for a 40 NM short hop and then do visual approach at the destination.

That is what most IR holders end up doing. It makes for an easy life. Weather permitting of course.

What you don’t want to do is do that 40nm trip in crap wx, by flying “pretend VFR” (e.g. to avoid an extra 30nm SOD/STAR distance) because that is how people get killed. It’s one thing to get killed flying (lots of people do it) but getting killed when you have an IR and you were flying “VFR” and flew into a hill, is just a big waste of time and money But many IR holders have done exactly that.

I don’t think that will work in eg. Germany.

No reason why not. If you file a Eurocontrol flight plan, you can fly it. It might be rather long…

To keep your EASA IR current, you need to do a profcheck every year. For this reason alone, it is a good idea to fly most of your cross country flights IFR. In my experience, you need to fly IFR at least once or twice per month to stay current.

Flying IFR in Germany is quite straight forward. I’ve never experienced the rather long detours Peter is mentioning. ATC will try to get you off the SID as soon as practical to make room for faster traffic.

In the US we’ve been flying IFR at just 3000’ for a 40 NM short hop and then do visual approach at the destination. I don’t think that will work in eg. Germany.

It will work most of the time. Just give it a go with the new IFR route generator: http://router.euroga.org
For example, from your home base EDFE to Saarbrucken EDDR it finds:
EDFE BOLKI/N0120F030 IFR DCT RMS DCT EDDR (0% overhead, at FL030).

Does Germany allow a departure straight into IMC and then a direct flight in IMC to another airport’s localiser (for example), merely by keeping above the MSA or MRVA?

Normally, if the actual conditions are IMC, an IFR flight will need to involve some portion of a SID, an enroute section (which in Germany must be in CAS because currently they don’t allow IFR in Class G), and an approach.

That will always be substantially longer than a VFR flight from one airport to the other.

In the UK, Class G, you can depart “VFR” into OVC002 and fly at the MSA (legally-IFR speaking) or at 501ft AGL (legally-practically speaking) and then arrive “VFR” with a DIY IAP in OVC002 conditions, in a G-reg, more or less legally

UK is unique in that you can depart VFR from a grass strip, enter IMC at 200ft, declare yourself IFR and fly non-radio, non-transponder in uncontrolled airspace to your destination.

In Germany you can fly low level IFR as long as you remain in controlled airspace.
Like you said: “If you file a Eurocontrol flight plan, you can fly it.”

In the Netherlands we do fly routes like Lelystad – Rotterdam IFR at 2000ft all the time…

UK is unique in that you can depart VFR from a grass strip, enter IMC at 200ft, declare yourself IFR and fly non-radio, non-transponder in uncontrolled airspace to your destination.

However, if you look at ICAO airspace rights, the above is 100% legit, AFAIK.

It is just that some countries don’t like it so they bite bits off around the edges.

Germany bans IFR in Class G – not sure why exactly.

In the USA you can get done for a VFR departure into OVC002, if there are witnesses etc. However, you get done not for IFR in Class G (which is OK) but for not having filed an IFR flight plan (which, had you done so without having an IR, would not be illegal but would become illegal had you actually flown it).

However a big driver behind the UK system being like it is is the lack of funding for GA ATS services, which is achievable only in Class G. US-style Class E would cost serious money in ATC desks – about £1M/year per H24 radar desk.