Read the whole thread with great interest, and have a small axe to grind as well!
I did my CPL way back in 1985 starting the PPL training in early 1982, with the Flying School knowing that I wished to advance all the way to CPL, SCPL (as it was then.)
I was given what could be described as a bit of a 'hard time' by my Instructors whom I later discovered, had held a meeting just after I signed up with the School. The meeting was a general discussion along the lines of...' OK, how are we going to teach this bloke?"
I was given far more IF time than the then syllabus required. Also, back then in the 80's there was a requirement to hold a
Class 4 Instrument rating, otherwise known as a
Night VMC rating before you could take the CPL Flight test!
When it came to eventually completing the training for the MECIR rating it was the same. I was given a bit of a hard time. ie put under a bit more pressure than normal. I was lucky enough to have been able to do my initial MECIR rating on a shockingly ****ty winters day out of YPAD. About 95% of the test was flown in genuine IMC and the 2,000' winds that day were 45kt+
My very first IFR Charter, flown in the same A/C (a Seneca 1
) was flown on a similar day about three weeks later!
I am now firmly convinced that the training I received saved my sorry arse more than once, given some of the things that happened to me in my PNG flying career!
*
Sorry to write a book, but my point is; Unless you have a CIR, Multi or single engine and have had some experience in real IMC conditions, think very carefully about any flight when the weather appears 'marginal.' Because it's always worse than you think!
* Thanks to two very talented Instructors; TK and PD
