FAA/IR
Agree entirely: FAA/IR is no picnic.
I got mine in Florida a few years ago having already had the UK IMCR for many years.
Even allowing for my pre-existing IMC hours and having got the written out of the way in UK before I went, I still took a full fortnight to get the FAA/IR.
It was bloody hard: remember this is the same rating that American Airlines ATPLs have.
However , flying a G reg as I do from a farmstrip, I found keeping up the required instrument approaches/VOR tracking etc every six months to keep the FAA/IR current too much of a bind and have , reluctantly, decided to let it go.
I have only used FAA/IR in anger when renting in USA (when it was very useful, usually to punch up out of the marine layer in LA basin when everybody else was grounded), and it's no use to me in UK.
So: if you plan on buying a N reg and operating it in UK, go for the FAA/IR, otherwise do the IMCR, but for gawd's sake do it over here where you'll see some real IMC:
What's the point of doing the IMC in bright California sunshine?
We all know it only takes a microsecond peep out of the corner of the foggles to destroy the IMC effect and what good is cheating when your life might depend on it.
Safe flying
Cusco
