Even getting the IR ticket means nothing. It's the work you do afterwards to get the experience to fly in real IMC.
Sternone
Totally agree with you
I have not been involved in this thread but will add this to your comments!
Any licence whether its a basic PPL or an IMCR or an IR or even a type rating is a licence to start to learn.
The experience you gain afterwards is what makes you a competant pilot.
But you have to start somewhere and that somewhere is to have a certain training standard and to be able to meet those standards in your flying.
What is required to meet that basic standard is the question? Take an FAA IR and a European IR. One is much harder to achieve and takes far longer in ground studies.
You would think the European IR would produce much better and safer IR pilots than the FAA variety yet statistically this is NOT the case.
That beggars the question is one "overkill" ? as any training is expensive not only financially but in time it is quite in order to question whether the rating can be done to produce the same standard pilot at a lower cost and quicker speed.
Pace