Bose & Stellair
The safe IMCR pilots are the guys that go out and practice, practice, practice and 20hrs a year is not practice
As I have pointed out earlier in this thread, all my flying is without the assistance of an autopilot. As a typical PPL doing about 100 total hours per annum, I would suggest that 20 hours of that flying manually in IMC is more than sufficient to maintain currency. I certainly don't need to 'settle down' as I have over 200 hrs total time on instruments and find the whole experience thoroughly enjoyable as well as being intellectually challenging.
It is not my objective to fly in conditions that require ILSs down to 200'. I am happy to stick with 500' or thereabouts as that ensures I can complete 95% of my planned business and leisure trips. If I wanted to improve on that then I would not hesitate to up the game and get an IR.
You both extol the virtues of the 'real' IR rating versus the limited IMCr. However, in my experience the 'paltry' 20 hours a year manual IMC flying exceeds that of many jet jockey chums of mine who point out that their company policy is to conduct the entire commercial flight on autopilot . . . especially if the conditions are bad. So although the two of you have creased up with laughter, I actually think my instrument skills compare quite favorably with many of my IR friends.
. . . .. and Stellair - I am gutted that you won't be joining our club. What a loss
