Originally Posted by
27/09
The FAA instrument rating is very affordable to maintain and it seems to work very well. Something like 3 departures, 3 intercepts and 3 approaches every three months, no annual check.
Right, but I think that the relevant point here that the OP touched on is that even if you don't stay current, you still have the instrument rating (although aren't able to exercise the privileges) You could earn the instrument rating, and not fly another minute on instrumnts for 30 years, but you'd still have an instrumnt rating on your certificate. As opposed to the Australian method where the Instrument Rating ceases to exist if hot renewed. That's why the statistics are so lop-sided between the US and Australia. I bet if you compared the Number of Australian Pilots with Instrument Ratings with the number of US pilots who have maintained legal currency to fly instruments, the difference wouldn't be as marked.