Originally Posted by
Sunfish
out about, would you care to comment on the proportions of australian and american pilots holding Ifr ratings? Perhaps under the less costly US system, the Angel flight pilot would have simply filed IFR?
Sunfish,
Of course, the PIFR, which was intended to be, and for a time was, a simple and straightforward minimum cost basic instrument rating, it has been distorted out of all recognition now, so that it is little different to the full command rating.
This has not been entirely CASA's fault, typical of the reactionary "no change, we do it best" brigade, there was constant lobbying against the PIFR by the self confessed "professionals".
In US, an instrument rating is just another rating, here it is more a "badge of office", something "special" that only special pilots can aspire to etc etc, a "ring of fire" to be jumped through, along the lines of "back in my day, sonny, when we were real pilots, we had to XXXXX (fill in favourite horror story).
Or, put another way, the US "cooperation" model versus the "Australian Way", the "conflict" model.
Tootle pip!!