The general idea in European touring on the IMCR (which I did for a few years) is that one departs the UK is less than great weather, climb to VMC on top before the airspace boundary, continues VMC to say La Rochelle and lands in VFR conditions. And the reverse going back. It tends to work quite well in the sense that it is a lot better than being legit VFR-only which is pretty limiting
Shall I understand that so that you made use of the French rules allowing you to fly VMC on top (if I am not mistaking) and "hoped" for a hole in the clouds before destination?
My flying will be towards Northern Europe where the weather possibly is more rubbish than in the UK, so that would be quite a gamble for me. I can of course make an ILS approach based on what I will learn on the IMC course and hope that they are not checking....but I am not sure of the (legal) risks I would be running, and seems not to be something you would plan for (emergencies are different, of course)
The FAA IR is nowadays not meaningful unless you are going to own your own plane, because it has to be N-reg.
I am not so concerned about having to have an N-reg plane available, there seems to be plenty available for purchase and hire. I am more concerned about the EU ni their visdom deciding to ban N-regs to be permanently based in Europe or something, which could leave you with an FAA PPL and IR that are useless and an JAA PPL that has lapsed?
Thanks for gettnig back on subject
