Yes I'm amazed that they let these FAA chaps fly into heathrow everyday with mere ICAO qualifications under their wings....
So, no good saying ICAO requirements aren't good enough for Heathrow
Forgive me if I'm wrong, but RVR is
not saying that an ICAO IR is not good enough for Heathrow. Quite the contrary, in fact.
I think what he is suggesting is that people with FAA (and other ICAO) IRs fly into Heathrow every day quite safely, therefore it follows that any attempt from the CAA to make their IR more stringent than ICAO requires is unnecessary and over the top. The sarcasm in his post, however, appears to have been lost, despite his use of a smiley to emphasise the point.....
Anyway, in an attempt to turn this thread back into "an interesting discussion about JAA reviews", a couple of questions:
First of all, am I right in thinking the current proposals would still restrit IR training to FTOs, and not extend this privilege to RFs? If so, I wonder how many RFs would upgrade to FTOs? Would very many people train for IMC ratings any more? Would existing RFs suffer from loss of IMC training?
Also, how easy will it be to hire an aircraft which is equipped for airways flight? I would say that it is currently hard, but not impossible, to hire a light single-engined aircraft which is equipped for IMC flight outside controlled airspace. Do you think those schools/clubs who have IMC-equipped aircraft would invest in filters to upgrade their radios to be FM immune, thus allowing the new breed of pilots to hire an aircraft and go away somewhere for the day?
The initial announcement of a review seems, to me, to be extremely good news. I really hope that the review can produce something which enables private air travel to really take a step forward in Europe and the UK.
FFF
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