Crab;
Onshore you are either making an IFR departure from a fully equipped airfield, or you are making a VFR departure from an unlicensed site or unequipped airfield, there is no such thing as an IFR departure from a private site, or unequipped airfield.
Second, when IFR the aircraft should be above the minimum safe altitude (around Gillingham they should have been at least around 2000')How does a pilot fly a visual departure when the cloud base is a few feet and the visibility "tens of metres" and get to his safe altitude without ignoring the requirement to be visual for his departure? Or are we back again to "I paid for an IFR helicopter and pilot, so fly it IFR!" from the bloke in the back? The rules go out the window because the real biggy in every pilot's mind is the engine failure case, which is so rare and the helicopter is so incredibly clever that it will deal with the conditions pertaining, despite the fact that maybe the pilot can't deal with them as he doesn't know how.
I have never seen the low velocity indicator on any onshore IFR machine, and I've flown most types, but in reality that would just be another bit of kit encouraging pilots to break the rules.
SND