I guess you will have "x" hundred pilots and "x" hundred views on this! My
feeling
is that I welcome the possibility that we may one day be given the privilege
to be able to consider extending our options on a given occasion if considered
appropriate.
The realisation of one's own limitations and those of the aircraft is a vital
part
of all aspects of aviation, none more so than the proposed Permit IFR
operations.
Personal ability and limitations along with aircraft ability and limitations
are paramount and need to be fully understood and appreciated always.
But my view is that the permit IFR issue is essentially no different to "IFR
operations" in say a Cessna 150 or a C of A Auster for example which has always
been allowed. I personally would be just as happy to go out and conduct the
same IFR flight in my Europa that I might go and do in a Cessna 150 that I have
been qualified to do for years.
Yes we do need to consider and realise just what it is we are hoping to be able
to be able to do! I don't think any of us believe that we will suddenly become
a true all weather/ go anywhere, anytime you like type operation in our little
Europas and go whizzing down the ILS to minimums at Heathrow or Paris Charles
de Gaulle on a daily basis with the big boys. But to have the capability (in
quiet uncontrolled airspace if you like) to legally climb up through a benign
layer of cloud to cruise in the beautiful clear air above and descend down
through the layer again into good weather below - and to have the capability if
necessary to make a simple ILS approach as a cloud break procedure at say a
small quiet regional type airport is not beyond the realms of possibility for
many of us.
I have "dabbled" in the past on a number of occasions to make trips go easier
and
must say I have always found my Europa a very good instrument platform. Light,
very responsive and stable. It's sensitive of course but I don't find it
at all twitchy. But I know my limitations and those of my plane and my
intention
as always, with careful planning and thought is never to overstep those limits.
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G-TERN
Classic Mono
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