IO540, what an excellent post.
With one exception, though:
That "quality" argument is utter elitish bo110cks. You are presumably a JAA IR instructor or better still a CAA IR examiner
I'm a JAA IR instructor, but I most certainly do not go along with this idea that the IMCR is a rating not to be used!
Before I had an IR, I had an IMC rating, which I used to use as often as I could, even if it meant wearing foglges and taking a safety pilot. (The fact that the aircraft I owned at the time was day-VFR only meant that I had to go out of my way to hire an appropriate aircraft, but as an IMC rating holder, I understood that I
had to keep current at instrument flying if I was to stay safe.)
Before I was an IR instructor, I was an IMC instructor. My IMC students, by the end of their course, were just as capable of doing everything on the IMC syllabus (and more) as my IR students now are of doing everything on the IR syllabus (and more).
So I'm with you 100%, it would be a real shame if the IMC rating were lost to Eurocrats, but please don't assume that IR instructors don't value the IMC rating!!!
FFF
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