There have always been two types of IMC holder.
One hard core that used it more than most IR holders outside commercial ops.
And the ones that did the rating had an occassional approach for !!!!s and giggles and that was about it. They might have renewed it once or twice but that was about it.
The main thing for me have been the number of expired IMC holders that have found themselves where they really didn't want to be and got themselves back on the ground safely if not in exactly text book or pretty manner.
Then there are those of us that fly multicrew IR and want some form of instrument rating for flying singles without going for the full wack. I suspect 50% of us since converting to JAR haven't bothered to be honest keeping it current. And more than likely wouldn't hesitate either banging up into the cloud if we thought it was the safest thing to do.
In the UK IMC works because of the airspace structure. They are kept away from class A airways but still have access to the majority of instrument approaches. And landing fees take care of the rest.
There will I suspect be a huge part of the problems with certain parties is the fact they don't want a load of 80-130knt spam cans cluttering up their airways and them having to provide ATS for the increase in traffic load. And not get payed for it to boot.
It doesn't bother the UK because they can't get access to any of the enroute center services they have to sort themselves out bodging between local services and they don't screw with the flow figures.
Last edited by mad_jock; 27th March 2013 at 18:33.