Crab
"I have lost count of the jobs where procedural IF - esp ILS was the only way to either get home or get the casualty to hospital."
Total ****e. Just shows a lack of initiative.
Always makes me laugh when people harp on about procedural IF as if it is something special or required.
The RN Junglie Seakings have always had procedural IF kit and procedural IRs, yet have always been rightly mocked by the pinger pretheren for being frankly rubbish at instrument flying.
The average pinger is at as good a standard of IF flying as anyone else in the forces and manages perfectly well without any ILS/VOR/NDB and seemingly always manages to get where he wants to go, as does the RN SAR force. One advantage of having an Observer rather than a radar operator.