I don't frankly think that we'd get anywhere in the european court; you could waste decades and millions of pounds and get precisely nowhere. As always with the law, whoever makes the case-law pays a very large bill indeed.
I do think that lobbying EASA will be the way forward, if only all the different bodies (PPL IR, AOPA, LAA etc.) could speak with one voice. At the moment we have a "Life of Brian" style situation with the Peoples Front of Judea vs. the Popular Front of Judea (splitters!!) - which suits the anti-GA lobby within EASA down to the ground. The sad truth is that all of these organisations are terrific bunches of guys, saying more or less the same thing, out of love of flying, rather than financial motivation.
I think that sacrificing the IMCR without a real world alternative (an achievable PPL/IR or a European version of the FAA PPL/IR) would be fatal and trying to get anything like an IR-lite set up post IMC abolition would be impossible. Rather akin to trying to find a job when unemployed, or trying to find a girlfriend when you're single
It would also be nice if there were some real support from the CAA on this front, but the sad truth about the CAA is three-fold;
1. The primary directive of the CAA is not to protect the interests of aviation or even regulate aviation (although it does so with varying degrees of success along the way); it's primary role is to make a sufficient margin of profit to remain in business. Change of any kind may threaten this cosy profitable world, and should be avoided.
2. There are still too many ex-military and retired commercial airline pilots populating the CAA, who dislike change intensely - just look at the complete lack of progress of GPS approaches (the underlying argument seeming to be that GPS is dangerous, but NDB's are safe) - and who continue want to do things as they have been done since the war; the "it was good enough for me, so it's good enough for them" argument. That is to say nothing about the chaotic and confused situation surrounding Part-M maintenance...
3. There is a very real paucity of political talent at the CAA is a terrific handicap to making any real progress within EASA. The state of open antipathy between EASA and the CAA is working against the interests of us pilots at the moment, and is likely to see us lose the IMCR (with no viable alternative on the horizon) and yet it is now pretty much certain that we will see a europe-wide roll out of the 'brevet de bas' because, according to EASA, the 'brevet de bas' is safe and good - but the IMCR is dangerous and bad.
Having roundly slated the CAA, I do know that there are some really good guys trying to bat our corner there, and perhaps now would be the moment for Bose-X to take a bow and let us know the latest??
