Originally Posted by Pheasant Plucker
You mention that VMC requirements are more stringent, well, only if you are at or below 3000 feet and at a speed of 140kts or less
But that is of relevance to pilots of all aircraft, not just the puddle-jumpers. It means that VFR puddle-jumpers cannot be "hidden" in poor visibility at or near the cloudbase in Class E airspace. Therefore the Class E VMC limits make it more likely that unknown VFR contacts will be able to be spotted by conflicting IFR traffic.
Talking of the military, I think a very good example of the type of incident that could be avoided by sensible application of Class E airspace is a Typhoon-paraglider airprox (page 56 of
this report). The paraglider pilot in question evidently had an interesting take on airmanship, flying autonomous IMC in the vicinity of a procedural approach to a busy military training airfield. He was damn lucky the Typhoon pilot spotted him and advised all other aircraft to abandon their instrument approach practices. This kind of costly interference in training would be meat and drink to someone requesting controlled airspace around a civilian aerodrome, and I wouldn't be too surprised if the military seek to establish some form of CAS around all their aerodromes if occurrences like that become regular (particularly as the military is becoming increasingly safety-conscious). A Class E zone would deny pilots the "right" to fly autonomous IMC near a busy airfield with no training, rating or equipment, which I think is a "right" that they shouldn't have anyway!