but with an FAA IR and purely convert the IR with a flight test and oral on return?
Could that not be done in the USA too? I know certain situations where a US based school cannot examine for an INITIAL IR abroad, or for that matter a PPL, so what some schools do if have a UK examiner resident, then you do the FAA PPL, and as you are now CONVERTING an existing PPL to a (then) JAA one, you could do the conversion in the USA. I wonder if this might become possible for the IR under EASA?!
IFR time is a stupid concept which no one logs. IFR can be anything really, bimbling along in class G "In accordance with IFR" or on an "IFR flight plan with ATC directed routing". However one thing which is undeniable is "Actual instrument time" or "Simulated Instrument Time" and which everyone logs. I have done many IFR trips in Gin Clear weather purely because it is a lot easier to negotiate airspace (i.e. you don't have to). I have no idea how many hours "IFR flight" I have done at all!
Speaking of sabotage in the UK....When I did my JAA PPL in the USA in 2000, I came back to the UK and did a check out at a large flying club. On the taxi out, chatting with the old boy FI, he asked where I learned to fly. When I said the USA his snooty response was "oh we don't like those here". I thought Fjsdfwk you mate, and actually at the end of the check out he did admit that "I flew very well".
Luckily the second FI I flew with learned to fly in South Africa, so he didn't have an attitude.