RAF "colour coded" IMC flying qualifications

[Trim Stab]

Could somebody please explain (or better point to a reference for) the colour codes used by the RAF for IMC qualifications? What are the requirements to meet the various levels?

[kharmael]

There are several levels used by the RAF to allow student pilots to fly IMC whilst taking into account their relative inexperience. At all times the student had to fly to green standards to gain the qual.

Provisional Instrument Flying Grading (PIFG): Used to be obtained on the Firefly. Allowed studes to fly IF approaches down to DH/MDH +1000ft and fly everywhere solo IFR except class A. The requirements for the PIFG are lower than a normal IR as the stude has done very little IF (maybe 6 hours?) and probably has about 70 hours total time!

Amber Rating: Obtained on the King Air and Tucano during advanced flying training. Allows studes to fly IF approaches down to DH/MDH +500ft and fly everywhere solo IFR except class A.

For the two training ratings there are also numerous other rules about the levels of cloud cover and thickness, studes are also not allowed to cruise IMC. I can't remember the exact numbers though, sorry!

White/ White Frozen Green: Obtained on frontline aircraft. Pilot has to pass full IRT and is awarded this if they don't quite meet green standards, have less than 50hrs on type OR less than 300hrs total time. If awarded frozen green and they then subsequently get 50hrs on type or 300hrs total time within 3 months of issue it is upgraded to a green rating, if not it remains a white rating until the next IRT, allowing all privileges of a normal IR bar adding 200ft onto any DH/MDH.

Green Rating: Instrument rating as most people know it!

Hope that helps!

[26er]

And what happened to the Master Green that I had a lifettime ago?

[Duncan D'Sorderlee]

Still there.

Duncs:ok:

[BEagle]

Didn't the MG Rating disappear a few years ago?

Does the term 'Restricted' Green still apply to those without what was once termed the 'Procedural Endorsement'?

I guess BIFG and AIFG are relics of history these days....

[Tourist]

kharmael

That is not quite how I think it works, unless things are different in the RAF.

Amber and white ratings do not require you to fly to the same limits as green during IRT, and the RN certainly still has Master Green, and yes you can have a restricted green. The ratings have nothing to do with what stage of training you are at. If a 5000hr Seaking pilot goes lynx, he will get a white (probably flown to green limits) until he has the hours on type. Students can get a white rating on training aircraft.

[Duncan D'Sorderlee]

Beagle,

The MG escaped and then returned.

Duncs:ok:

[I'm Off!]

What Tourist said...

Kharmael is not quite right - the limits are most definitely different, and BIFG and amber have now pretty much gone by the wayside.

MG not used often outside of RN, and all Green IRT's should be marked 'Restricted' if the aircraft if the pilot is not tested on the procedural element of the IRT.

[oxenos]

The limits to which you had to fly on the IRT were the same for the Green and Master Green. An ancient IRE was asked how he decided which to award.
The answer was that at the end of the test he looked at the candidate's armpits. If they were wet he was a Green. If he had done it without raising a sweat, he got a Master Green

[BEagle]

The MG escaped and then returned.

Sounds like another meddling senior officer decision subsequently overturned....:rolleyes:

No doubt the Cat scheme has been re-invented as well?

When I was an IRE, I looked for smoothness and overall management as the decider between G and MG. If the candidate flew to the limits that was one thing, but to do it and make it look so effortless was quite another.

That said though, I really don't see the point in 2 levels of qualification which have identical privileges.

[Tourist]

MG is an authorisation thing.
If there is a sortie that is right on the edge of the dodgy limit wx wise, an authoriser is more likely to let a MG go.

Plus, on a MG IRT the limits may be the same, but you are expected to be well inside them.

[deltahotel]

Sitting in the commercial world now where you either have a rating or not it does seem strange that there are different levels of ratings. Didn't seem strange when I was an RAF IRE, but that was the system I grew up with.

[Fortissimo]

My father (no longer with us) told me that pilots during WW2 and for a while thereafter were expected to carry their white or green card with them when they flew in the UK. It was a supervisory tool that developed because people used to get diverted to any of the large number of airfields then in operation where the probability was that nobody knew them or their capabilities/experience. They therefore had to show their card to the duty adult before they were allowed to RTB in duff weather.

DH is correct, it does seem odd in the commercial world, but the difference is that the majority of service pilots act as single pilot rather than multi-crew. That said, wouldn't it be useful for a captain to know that a co-pilot was less IF-competent or experienced than some of his peers?

[E-Spy]

The German Air Force has rather intuitive system - your colour rating is the same as the Met code you are allowed to fly down to, ie amber rating = allowed to descend to amber conditions. It leads to 180deg out scale to the RAF system. They always stared in amazement about the number of green-rated pilots we had, wondering how we cope in the British weather!

Makes perfect sense to me, now....

[mike rondot]

Tourist

The Master Green was also a useful tool for senior officers in staff appointments who needed a valid instrument rating to fly solo on FJ types.

Hence the late Sir John Thomson was able to maintain a Procedural Master Green rating on the Jaguar when AOC No 1 Group and later, when AOCinC HQSTC because he was current on type. He lacked the recent hours for a White or Green rating but was required only to be current for a Master Green.

Before you ask, he earned it. Nobody received a MG rating unless they were good; he was very, very good.

http://i1188.photobucket.com/albums/z409/5dilly/cardWG-2.jpg

[oxenos]

There was, of course the blue rating, printed on blue card. If, when you held it up the sky was the same colour as the card, you could go flying.

[sharpend]

Jousting at windmills and noting Mike's comment that to get a MG you had to be good, I actually was a MG CIRE (Master Green, Command Instrument Rating Examiner). Now I might have been total rubbish, but the only person able to renew my MG CIRE was my opposite number at Brawdy (I was at Chivenor). If my fading memory serves me correct, all we ever did was to fly low level VMC round Wales at 450 kts.

You see, the only person able to renew his rating was ME! :ok:

Talking of John Thomson, I flew him to Riyad when he was CAS. He popped up onto the flight deck of my VC10 and chatted about old times on Jaguar. I congratulated him on his appointment as CAS and he replied that he prefered my job.

Very sadly he died two weeks later.

[2Planks]

And don't forget Battle Green for new QRA chaps - white rated but allowed to fly to green limits if weather deteriorated whilst airborne. If deterioration forecast below white limits call Q3.

[fantom]

Well, it was all unfair anyway.

In my fantom on finals for my last IR @ Bruggen the IRE (TN) whispered ' if you do this perfectly, I'll give you MG'.

I lost the G/P and C/L and had to go-around.

Brilliant.

[Sven Sixtoo]

On the SAR Fleet, the one privilege that went with a MG rating was that it was a necessary prerequisite to an A Cat


Which meant no more Cat checks for 3 years!

[juliet]

To those who are wondering why there is a rating above Green, I always put it down to providing something to strive for. I was pretty proud when I gained a Master Green, it was something that I worked hard to get and then to maintain.

I think this all comes under the idea of working towards excellence rather than just proficiency.