Does the IR increase your safety in VMC?

[MLS-12D]

I guess this just goes to show that you can justify any position with statistics! Interesting reading, anyway: Are IR pilots safer? (http://www.swaviator.com/html/issueSO02/Hangar91002.html)

[Keef]

Looks statistically fishy to me. I don't see any analysis of flying hours, for example.
If those VFR pilots were flying 15 hours a year, and the IFR pilots 150 hours a year, then adjust the numbers for "accidents per flying hour" and tell me what that shows!

I reckon that my IR (or rather, the training for it) has made me much less likely to have an accident.

I still need to look out of the window in VMC, to declare IFR when I run into cloud, and to stay sober when flying.

I'd recommend anyone who can to do the IMC rating (at least) and the IR if they can.

[Evil J]

I think the IR is ridulously difficult (hence expensive) in the UK to obtain for a PPL due largely to the over the top ground school requirments. That said I do feel much safer with my IMC rating and think this is an excellent scheme that provides more than adequate training for your average Joe PPL provided it is kept current ofcourse.

[QNH 1013]

Evil,

I don't think it is the ground school which makes a UK IR so expensive - the ground school only accounted for about 10%-15% of the cost of my IR and that was including the residential brush-up course and two days at Gatwick for the CAA exams.

The main expense was a combination of:

Very expensive training rates at a decent school (simulator over £100 ph and aircraft about £250 ph)

Hotel bills and travelling (over a 400 mile round trip each week for me)

Approach Fees during training and test (over £25 per approach at some airfields)

Large number of hours to get up to the test standard (over 30 hours in the aircraft in my case + 13 hours in the sim)

CAA Flight test which together with a/c hire and approach fees meant the test cost about £1000. Thank goodness I passed.

[Evil J]

Yeah fair point, but its the groundschool that will stop me doing it as I'm ashamed to admit that I don't have the will power to sit down and study that amount of info about airline Ops or FMC operation (and I did start an ATPL course a couple of years ago!!) when that has zero relevance to what I want to do.

At least the flying part is fun!!

[Keef]

The alternative is to study for the FAA IR, do the training in the USA, and find an N-reg aircraft to share in the UK. There isn't much of the "initiation ceremony" in the FAA IR.

The whole FAA IR cost me under $4,000. Money well spent.