Re: Treatment of IFR flight plans (UK, outside Class A)
Interesting.
As "everybody" knows, a lot of 2000kg+ pilots choose to fly VFR to avoid the charges.
The drawbacks of this include:
1) No airways-style enroute clearance, need to sit up and beg for a transit at each piece of CAS (generally, less of a problem abroad than in the UK)
2) Cannot depart if cloudbase is below the minimum VFR departure figure for the airfield (if it's an ATC airfield)
3) The flight plan is addressed only to departure, destination and possibly some regional FIS units, and doesn't get looked at unless the aircraft vanishes.
4) In any airspace where night=IFR, no night flight
5) Illegal if in IMC at any time (unenforceable)
6) Cannot land if an instrument approach is obviously required to get in.
On the last one, an IR (or IMCR if UK) pilot arriving VFR can then ask for an instrument approach, with the IFR clearance which that implies. I gather from pilots who do this that this isn't a problem in practice - any feedback on this? Obviously this is fine in the UK; it's normal practice.