leading edge wrote:
Most of the GOM operators do, as B Sousa says, require instrument ratings but NOT so that pilots can knowingly fly into bad weather.
I cannot speak for him, but I'm sure that when Bert wrote:
I guess thats why those companies want you to have an Instrument Rating. So you can fly VFR equipped aircraft beyond VFR conditions
...he merely left out the phrase "when you inadvertently encounter them."