EIR and IRR are quite complementary, on the way back this may work very well
It actually works for departures too; with an IMCR you can take off into IMC right away, limited only by the 1800m min surface vis, and any departure minima on the plates.
my VFR dispatch rate has proven reasonable (+/- 1-2 days) and IR with a capable plane (that I could afford) would have given maybe a 50% improvement, not a 100% solution.
Yes; I would only add that a capable plane also greatly assists VFR flown as “VMC on top” which is by far the best way to do long VFR trips. One cannot generally do that in the UK due to all the Class A, but most other places it works well and avoids the “below cloud, rising terrain” traditional trap.
