Not really convinced an EIR rating actually makes sense for helicopters. It would make more sense the other way around: making IFR departures and approaches and then VFR for the cruise (e.g. on top). Especially this time of the year, we frequently encounter inversions which means you can't get in and out of the airport, but otherwise the weather is perfectly flyable.
Hmm. In the flatlandish section of Austria we frequently have very low cloud/fog bases like 100ft AGL. So the departure would be helicopter VMC, turing into IMC while still above the 3000ft runway, still in uncontrolled airspace.
And if the weather is IMC for cruise, it is most likely IMC too at the airport you want to land, since distances flown with a chopper are usually shorter.
In Switzerland there is still a national license for a so-called "cloud breaking procedure" which allows you to do an IFR departure in a single turbine with IFR-like instrumentation, but only without pax and no approaches.
On an uncontrolled airfield in class 'G'? nice!
Maybe I'm just wrong regarding what part of the flight path is considered takeoff or landing (both should be VMC) and what part is the en-route part.
Given the very low speed of a helicopter I'd be okay with a departure or arrival clouds base of as low as 100ft AGL.
Judging from the pattern planes are flying at my home field I'd say that certainly is not enough for them to safely find their final approach.
Coming to think of it in a more general way:
Who is separating "en-route IMC" traffic in uncontrolled airspace right now as we speak, and how is it done?
I don't think separation is "decentralized" by mandating PowerFLARM + Mode-S + ADBS-in/out for enroute-IMC.
As the name "enroute
IFR" implies I presume one will be ATC controlled, following the requested heights and courses and at the latest when leaving controlled airspace one has to cancel IFR. This mandates see-and-avoid capability at the bottom of IFR airspace, which in many cases will be way above our typical winter cloud blanket.
What you are suggesting - while convenient - would place pilots (plural!) in IMC departure in non-IFR airspace, understandably a no-no
So how do the Swiss do that "cloud breaking thing", what conditions airspace / ATC wise are to be met ? They are way more relaxed than over here regarding PPL off airfield landings, maybe they've sorted out other things too, that our bossy Austrian gvmt. is denying us.
