You can fly approaches to the published minima (i.e. the IR minima) on the IMCR
The 500/600ft stuff is CAA advisory only. It's not in the ANO. The CAA is however very naughty to assume this in the IMCR exam questions! The 1800m min vis is mandatory though.
HWD - how do you estimate that 20-25% of holders of (unexpired) PPLs have an unexpired IMCR?
From the CAA Personnel Licensing Stats site, PPL(A) data
http://www.caa.co.uk/default.aspx?ca...68&groupid=559
2000-2001 PPL=2518 IMCR=??? ????
2001-2002 PPL=2295 IMCR=301 13%
2002-2003 PPL=2233 IMCR=337 15%
2003-2004 PPL=2102 IMCR=352 17%
2004-2005 PPL=1913 IMCR=308 16%
What sticks out is the alarming year on year drop in new PPL(A) issues but that's not the issue here.
There cannot be more valid IMCR holders than there are PPL holders, because an expired PPL kills the IMCR too. So the % of valid PPLs holding a valid IMCR must fall with time.
We can speculate how many PPLs who once had an IMCR keep it valid. My guess, from meeting other pilots who fly, is that way over 50% of IMCRs are expired.
The other thing is that the self fly hire scene isn't exactly conducive to somebody maintaining an IMCR. I mean, what can you do in a typical knackered old heap with an IMCR that you cannot do on a plain PPL. Anything that has a horizon, a microlight even, can fly in IMC en-route, navigating perfectly well with a handheld GPS, and there is no chance of getting caught doing it, so there is no incentive to keep the IMCR valid for that. One can also depart "VFR" pretty freely, in the UK. The IMCR is very much for flying approaches legally. What % of self fly hire planes have a fully working VOR/DME/ADF/ILS, FM Immune so you can do it in Class D, and properly tested and signed off so you can bet your life on the ILS (which you WILL be doing)?
I would be amazed to see as much as 5% of PPLs having a valid IMCR.
The interesting thing would be to analyse the "valid licenses" data
http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/175/srg_fc...cences2000.PDF
and correlate it with the new license issue data. We could get a reasonable grip on how fast licenses expire. Volunteers?
Example: taking the years 95-97, there was no increase in the # of valid PPL(A)s, yet presumably the # issued each year would have been about 3000. So during each of those years, for everybody who got a PPL another chucked theirs away. What we can't tell is the lag in the numbers i.e. how long people keep it for. The CAA is quite clever in the data they present
Tashi - I can believe you. Total immersion works wonders for the pass rate. It all gets forgotten just as fast, but that's not the point
It's obvious that the JAA IR is DESIGNED for airline pilot school type of immersion training, and THAT is why people "with a life" find it so hard to do it.