GH - General Handling.
You still don't seem to have understood the basic UK concept, Nimbus. Put simply, you can have radar separation from other traffic in the UK by asking for it on the radio. You don't need a flight plan. But you will only receive avoidance vectors under a radar ADVISORY service if you are also flying under IFR. You will NOT receive radar vectors if you're flying VFR; you might receive radar information if you actually need it and request it, but, perhaps unsurprisingly, under VFR you are normally expected to conduct your flight in accordance with VFR and accept a non-radar flight information service!
I vehemently disagree with the ridiculous idea of flying in IMC without any radar service, unless in a controlled environment on a procedural clearance. That is positively inviting disaster ANYWHERE in the UK these days and is unbelievably poor airmanship!!
Whether a pilot has a IMC Rating or IR in the 'open FIR' has virtually no relevance. All the IR really provides for its huge expense over the cost of an IMC Rating is the ability to fly a suitably-equipped aircraft in airways and to fly down to lower minima on an instrument approach. Unlike in some other countries, you can NEVER fly VFR in an airway in the UK, you must have a full IR to do so. Hence in the UK there are a lot of off-airways GA flights operating in IMC with a perfectly adequate radar service.....and NO flight plan is needed!!!
On another, but related topic, I also think that to fly around under VFR 'practising IF in a Seneca with its screens up' is a hazard to other traffic UNLESS the 'additional observer', as required under air law when the field of view of the instructor is obstructed (as it will be in a Seneca 'with its screens up'), is actually carried. And how many cash-strapped UK training schools actually do this, I wonder??
[This message has been edited by BEagle (edited 01 February 2001).]
[This message has been edited by BEagle (edited 01 February 2001).]