FormationFlyer Said: "UK Guidelines for approach minima? Pardon? They are rigidly set down in accordance with the a/c capabilities and your licence - if he doesnt know what they are then he shouldnt have the licence IMO. "
Canada Goose Said: "O.K. - I'm not familiar with the UK stuff so I can't say, but here in Canada, approach plates for specific airports have different minima for precision and non-precision approaches. Yes, to a degree the minima will be based on the a/c's groundspeed capability for non-precision appchs. However, I can't see what your licence !? has to do with minima guidelines ! "
In a way yes it does. In the UK given an IMC your minima is 1800m and 600' non-prec/500' precision. For an IR you effectively have no minima - it depends on the a/c and ops. For instance single pilot IFR requires a RVR minima of 800m - regardless of the approach plates.
Apart from that we too use the approach plates and minima published in the UK AIP and/or Aera/Jeppeson plates. - yes differing for precision and non-precision approaches.
Even different a/c types have diff minima adjustments - for instance in the UK for a non-precision we allow 50'PEC on most a/c however, on the PA34 I understand that the states use 30' PEC and this is now accepted by examiners in the UK - even if not documented - however - go to another a/c and you should use 50' PEC.
Back to the subject of IR conversions it does seem rather bizarre. On my course at OATS one guy had a canadian IR...he got an assessment from the CAA I believe...well i think..memory of 2 years ago is a bit hazy......Now I dont know if the rule is rigid or whether obtaining an assessment would be possible but if it reduce the time significantly then surely it must be worth the hassle....however, I think it will still depend heavily on experience - I can just see the UK CAA saying to someone who just passed their canadian IR to do the whole course - whilst the airline pilot with 2000 hrs may be given significant reductions...I dont know to be honest - but surely its worth asking the CAA if an assessment would produce clearer requirements?
Hope this helps,
FF