This has been an interesting thread kicked off by AOPA's article in December's GA magazine which I read with mounting dismay last Sunday.
There have been some convincing posts for the retention of the IMCr by Fuji and others. I am a firm supporter and can attest that at my own flying club the most proficient pilots at combining GA jollys with demanding clag flying (often manually) with IAPs at the conclusion tend to be IMCr holders. Of course they are no different as individuals from the IR lot - but this is all about 'currency' - and the IRs tend to be commercial crew who do it all week (on triple autopilot, auto throttles, full instrument landings etc etc) and by the weekend they are just looking for a different kind of fun - and the prospect of bouncing around in cloud in a spam can doesn't seem to tick their boxes ! (but don't get me wrong - they are top pilots who could do it if they felt the urge)
Sadly I think the current situation was best summed up by
mm_flynn:
Blathering on forums, Number 10 petitions, writing to FCL.008, dark threats, etc. are going to wind up with the IMCr holders being left behind. Only realistic lobbying of the key decision makers is going to achieve the objective of retaining all of the current privileges of the IMCr.
PS - no one is 'holding their noses' up at IMCr holders - but the IMCr holders need to fight their battle not hope some Euro committee will save them!!
Until this weekend I thought AOPA UK were leading that battle - based on the magazine article they appear to have been leading from an armchair.
This was reinforced by this morning's review of the latest Loop magazine:
"IMC saved my life" - You respond in droves to campaign to keep UK's IMC rating:
"The campaign to HELP THE MEN FIGHTING TO KEEP THE IMC RATING ALIVE and legal for UK pilots has been overwhelmed by your support . . . etc"
They go on to say:
"Many thanks for all your submissions to AOPA to add your support. Email your testimonials to LOOP . . . . . [and] we will forward them to AOPA's Martin Robinson"
As
Cows getting bigger so eloquently put it (post 11):
"at the risk of sounding flippant, WTF is going on ? . . . "
My thoughts exactly
Who precisely are all these
'MEN FIGHTING' to keep the IMCr? I am an AOPA member and in general I support all that they do . . . . .. but I have to say Martin Robinson now needs to explain exactly what he is up to as the 'campaigning' seems to be getting absolutely nowhere. I have an overwhelming sense that we are losing the battle to keep the IMCr (whether as a UK 'one-off' or some form of PPL-IR) through inept handling of the necessary politics.
How come AOPA UK failed to get a seat at the meeting? How come the IAOPA representative failed to push our case when it must have been obvious to those 'in the know' that Thorpe and his mates would love to see the rating eradicated? Frankly this shows how poor we Brits are at getting our way in Europe - we just don't know how to do it. Very sad as the potential consequences will be absolutely dire . . . .
Mr Robinson would you please post a statement on the AOPA website explaining how you are going to turn this situation around? Can I suggest you urgently engage an aviation lawyer (the Flying Lawyer aka Tudor perhaps?) to advise on how best to improve our lobbying? We only have one chance so please don't blow it.
. . . .. and maybe you should hire a French or German national to front our campaign as at least we won't then miss every trick in the book
Finally, under the 'news' section of your website there does not seem to be any reference to the IMC Campaign at all - why not? What happened to the 'urgent meeting' you were having with Mr Eric Sivel? Surely your website news section should be updated every week on matters such as this?
Yours,
(one well and truly dismayed)
Drambuster
cc LOOP and AOPA by email