IMC hours for IR
 

salutations all,

a chum of mine has been bashing through her IMC recently and said she has thoroughly enjoyed it all. so much so, she wants to carry on and do the full blown IR (fool :rolleyes: ).
instead of sitting an IMC test, can she just carry on onto the IR course, using the first 16 hours already logged as the first 16 hours of the IR course?

ta muchly

If the school that she's doing it at - and the instructor she's doing it with (ooh, err, missus!!) - are both approved....yeah.

Came back with an edit to say "However, is she aware of the nightmare of written examinations that she faces for the purpose of gaining an I/R - is she going to fly a suitably equipped aircraft when she has an I/R - and does she need an I/R" (I said "NEED").

The are nightmarish to get - and hideously expensive to maintain - but wonderfully useful if you NEED one.

Is the airfield she intends to fly into suitably equipped? There is little point in having an instrument rating and then trying to fly into some grass airfield with a 600 metre vis and 200' cloud ceiling.

Having said all that - the TRAINING could well be a lifesaver - even if she didn't get the rating.

Would suggest, however, if that if she really wants to do it.....do the written examinations first.

The JAA IR is not for the faint-hearted.

Many folks I know (me included) decided it was more like academic study than practical piloting, and went off and did the FAA IR. That's vastly more achievable, but useable in IMC/IFR in Europe only if you have an "N" painted on the side of your aeroplane. That, too, is possible!

If you do the FAA IR, and use it a bit, you may be able to count most of the training you did for that towards a JAA IR - the rules aren't too clear (to me, anyway), but there is cross-credit.

Keef:

I'm really courious as to what extra qualifications a JAA IR pilot would have over one of us guys who hold North American IR's?


Cat Driver:

gus_honeybun

can she just carry on onto the IR course, using the first 16 hours already logged as the first 16 hours of the IR course?

Very unlikely. You cannot begin JAA-IR flight training in the UK until you have passed the IR written exams, except under exceptional circumstances, agreed with the CAA (unless the rules have changed), plus as GoneWest said, the school needs to be an approved IR school.

GoneWest

"...and hideously expensive to maintain..."

Urban myth. Once you have a JAA-IR it is not that much more expensive to renew than an MEP - we discussed this a while back and even cynical 'English Al' eventually conceded this point :D (apologies EA :)) - I'll try and find the link...

Keef/Chuck

WRT the cross-credits for an ICAO IR - these were mentioned in the thread I mentioned above as well as some of the differences between FAA and JAA IR learnings. (now I have to find the link :D)

Gone West Does not need to be. All the holders of PPL+IRs, that I know, do just ONE flight test per year, with an IR examiner, which combines the IR & the MEP.

This seems to cost very little more, than a MEP on its own.

There is another thread currently running on exactly this subject. It's located here. I'd suggest locking this thread and posting the question on the other thread (unless BRL can merge the two?), since having two threads running simultaneously on the same subject doesn't usually achieve very much!

FFF
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distaff_beancounter

This seems to cost very little more, than a MEP on its own

25UKP in my experience. :D