Is it really worth paying 2-4 times as much to routinely fly an older, slower, ergonomically poorer aeroplane for the ability to occasionally fly with extra people and baggage, and even more occasionally to fly night or IMC ?
Get yourself an IR, a decent plane with a decent range (like a TB20
) and do some
nice long trips, above the clouds if necessary, with ATC working
for you all the way, and then come back and re-post your question
It is totally worth it.
Sometimes for perverse reasons though; for example if VFR flight was permitted around Europe to the extent specified in ICAO airspace classification (i.e. everywhere except Class A) a large chunk of the need for formal IFR capability (and an IR) would disappear. Instead, most of Europe simply operates Class B,C,D as Class A and that is a big driver behind the paper collection charade of formal instrument qualifications which are actually very rarely put to any use. I have done a good number of 20-30 hour trips on which I have not logged any instrument time (not even the few minutes one might spend going through some layer). I have done the same trips VFR and those were a lot more complicated, and never for any good reasons.
Obviously "going places" may not be your cup of tea, which is also a partial answer to your question.