As the holder of the IMCR I was always under the impression that I couldn't fly VFR on top in France since the privileges of the rating are only exercisable in UK airspace-that being so and in spite of what is said in the GASIL publication what extends my basic JAR PPL rights to fly VFR above cloud and out of sight of the surface?
The IMCR gives you two things
- IFR privileges in Class D,E,F,G and these are
limited to UK airspace
- the
UK issued PPL restriction of having to be in sight of the surface for VFR is removed, and there is
no territorial limit to this
The two above bits are in different parts of the ANO.
I also have the above from the CAA in writing, as have many others.
I don't know of any other European country which requires sight of surface for VFR. Elsewhere, I gather South Africa requires it. This means you can fly VMC above an overcast, as VFR, all over Europe.
Obviously this requires radio navigation, which is not adequately taught in the PPL, but if you have the IMCR then you should have no problems. In reality people just use a GPS, for all sorts of reasons.
GASIL is a rag which is full of patronising and occassionally incorrect "information", which is written to give the appearance of being a CAA mouthpiece, the LAW, etc, but is none of these.