Originally Posted by
Thud_and_Blunder
Agreed. Unless your Force heli exists primarily as a means to transport the Chief Constable around, and you need your pilots to turn down operational tasking to keep their IRs current, then a police helicopter in cloud is just a helicopter. I wonder which Force I could be thinking of...
Or use the IR to get to the remote incident via a IFR transit and instrument approach to VFR when the weather in between would keep a VFR pilot on the ground. Or an expeditious way of rtb in a straight line to refuel and be ready of the next task rather than struggling back low level at risk if the weather is not as advertised. Or delivering or collecting an operationally needed a/c from a maintenance provider when the weather is poor that would leave it grounded under VFR. Other than that, no real use, yes.