I am not prepared to accept the status quo which is why I volunteer my time to to try and make change. But neither am I naive enough to think that we can wave a magic wand to change decades of bureaucracy. Like all things in politics we have to change a little at a time to achieve our long term goal.
DP, I am sorry but IFR is a very different beast to VFR. Once you embark on an IFR flight you are committed to the resolution. The pilot does not have the same choices as a VFR pilot. You climb into the airway, it gets dark you look for an alternate, the alternate is below minima, the next alternate is 80 miles away, you are committed and if it gets dark you can't just expect to descend and land. It is not a question of trusting people to make decisions, IFR really is a totally different world and as much I try to find empathy for StevieB's situation I find myself in support of the rules. I have been there and found myself in the situation described above and in European weather it is a very real scenario.