how often have you had a current TAF forecast good VFR for an arrival and turned up to require an IFR arrival and/or approach because it was not possible to descend somehow/somewhere to establish VMC below?
I have had it happen a few times going to N French airfields.
In the UK one can't do it because UK ATC has a very poor capability for ad-hoc IFR clearances into what is mostly Class A. I have tried it a number of times and always been frustrated by a fairly deliberate "anti" procedure.
On my long trips we normally set a 3-day window and wait for the first technically flyable opportunity, and this applies to both VFR and, nowadays, IFR.
I queried this with Transport Canada, explained that the IMC is a sub-ICAO rating and their response was that the wording is quite clear; you can do anything the license and ratings permit you to do in your home State. Go figure!
The FAA confirmed to me in writing that the IMCR is valid on an N-reg.
Others disagree but if you get this kind of thing in writing, it is good enough
for you.
But actaully I find the biggest problem with flying on top is airspace
Absolutely so, which is why an IR, which everybody who has got it busted their gut to get, is so perverse. It is mostly a "CAS ticket" to VMC on top flight, and you fly the exact same route you would fly under VFR if you got easy CAS transits, in accordance with ICAO airspace classification
I have done loads of ~ 15 hour trips where I did not bother to log any instrument time, and I log IT in 5 minute increments
