Having posted the thread the replies are brilliant. It has certainly made me more enthusiastic about a PPL / IR. I was surprised to find the self-improver route is still available until 2002 and the CAA PPL / IR exams until November 2001. I wonder whether the self-improver route is a good one to follow - potentially it seems less time consuming. I was also interested to learn that the CAA IR gives a PPL no rights to fly IMC / IFR in Europe - so say the CAA. Can this be correct? To be fair there was a bit of reverse logic in that the helpful chap I spoke to said an IR rating obtained under national licensing of a European State would not be recognised in the UK. He went on to explain that your CAA PPL could be converted to a JAR PPL together with the IR and would then be recognised in all member states. The JAR PPL would then need to be renewed every 5 years I think BUT you could also retain your CAA PPL along side. All very interesting. Have all the CAA PPL / IR's been operating technically illegally in Europe or have I misunderstood?