FF
I think this man really did have a seriously crap IMCR instructor.
Even mine wasn't that bad - and mine told me that one could overload a VOR by tuning too many receivers to it. He had a JAA ATPL too - no idea if it was real or a photocopy though.
The trouble is that you could do a JAA PPL/IR and having sat through the 10 exams (is it 10, 14 for the CPL/IR?) you still don't need to know how to actually go somewhere for real. All depends on the instructor(s) and most instructors never do go anywhere.
I suspect this "how do I go to XYZ" problem doesn't surface with JAA IR pilots because so few of them (virtually none actually) are doing it for private flying. Most are heading for an airline and there they TELL you what to do
Whereas somebody who flies on their IMCR, often in IMC, needs to work it all out and is probably doing DIY letdowns in all sorts of places. By all accounts, that sort of flying is a lot more challenging than flying an airliner from Luton to Paris.
Incidentally, one can get a RIS if VFR (I've had it plenty of times) but one is FAR more likely to get it if one says one is IFR. A RAS is a lot harder to get and I can't vouch for what one has to do to get it - I've had a RAS a few times in a few years. I had it explained once in an MCASD meeting that the generous separation rules for a RAS mean that it is a practical necessity for the pilot to be in IMC (therefore IFR) because that's the only time the number of radar returns is likely to be low enough to make it possible - when the weather is crap.