JAR-FCL 1.001 Definitions and Abbreviations
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Solo flight time:
Flight time during which a student pilot is the
sole occupant of an aircraft.
Originally Posted by peterh337
I have little experience of this however because if you have an IR the absolutely very last thing you want to do is cancel IFR because ATC will generally wash their hands of you ("remain outside controlled airspace") when you do that, so you can fly into a trap whereby you need to sit and beg for a new IFR clearance to climb back up again, and that's a dangerous situation to be in.
Exactly, it's pointless to not have an IFR clearance if you have IR. I think most accidents with EIR - if it will remain in this form - will be in the VFR part, which will probably be some sort of DIY letdown in "VMC". The real benefit of IR is that you can depart and land in ****ty weather (well, depends on many things), and enjoy the sunshine VMC on top. EIR is going completely another way - you can be IFR en-route, where you have to be VMC in almost all cases and VFR in departure/arrival/approach phase, where the weather is usually the worst. You do get very simplified routing though...
In my experience, radar approach control won't let you fly as IFR below MEA/MSA/MRVA unless you are on SID/STAR/approach or established on a published procedure or holding.
Originally Posted by peterh337
So that should deal with the lateral issue but it does not deal with the vertical issue if ATC forces you to cancel IFR before descending through altitude XXXX.
Agreed, and there are tons of sea-level airports with very high MEA/MSA due to some obstacle 20-25 NM out and even if the weather states CAVOK (no clouds below 5000ft or MSA, whichever is higher), you won't be able to get in with EIR if you have a 500ft thick overcast layer at MSA, since you can't fly STAR/approach - even if everybody below is enjoying quite good VFR conditions.