While LAA types are restricted to daytime VMC I'm sure there will be many members who have IMC ratings.
The following has been produced by AOPA UK as a suggestion for lobbying your MP, elements of it will also be of use elsewhere.
You can easily find out who your representatives are by clicking here.
SAVING THE IMC RATING – THE SALIENT POINTS WHEN WRITING TO YOUR MP
Explain why you did an IMC Rating and add any personal experiences that you may have had with it.
Include some or all of the points below as well as any you think will help this cause.
EASA does not want to ban the IMC rating. It has worked to obtain a European consensus on it, but some countries don’t agree.
The IMC rating is one of the significant factors contributing to the UK’s high GA safety rate, which is far better than the rest of Europe - France has some 90 fatalities a year, Germany about 80, the UK 20 to 25.
It is designed to save low-time pilots from the consequences of running into bad weather, a greater problem in the UK than in most of the rest of Europe because of our maritime climate.
The abolition of the rating is an unintended consequence of an administrative change. It is not a matter of standards or safety – quite the opposite. It is a matter of bureaucratic tidiness, and it calls for a political solution.
The CAA has been operating the rating for 40 years, during which time it has been audited at least 20 times by the International Civil Aviation Organisation, which has never expressed any concern.
There is no credible suggestion that it is unsafe, and there is a mountain of evidence that it makes better pilots and has saved many lives.
The IMC rating is supported by every major aviation organisation in Britain, from the British Air Line Pilots Association to the General Aviation Safety Council and the Guild of Air Pilots and Air Navigators.
While EASA is still discussing the rating, it cannot adopt it without the unanimous agreement of 27 states. An administrative omission currently prevents the UK from offering the rating to British pilots in UK territory. A device must be created to allow this, and this must be arranged through the political process.
whilst lobbying MPs has a place, this seems to be poorly focused and sufficiently vague to be futile.
In contacting an MP, constituents need to be very clear about the problem and what they want the MP to do and this piece does not give us guidance on that. After all MPs may know what a light aeroplane is but they are unlikely to be able to understand a word of this. Moreover, with an election coming up a crisp and pointed campaign that identifies matters an MP can use to raise their profile may have utility. This just does not do it.
If you would like to put something more effective together for the LAA and others, that would be useful.
Mike, reference the fact that EASA need all states to agree - I thought that the dodgy Lisbon Treaty we were "sneaked" into recently stopped most powers of veto by one state and worked on a majority?
Would there be more mileage (or will that be kilometreage soon) to contact our MEPs (Members of the European Parliament)? They have not got an election to worry about and might just make them think that this is something they can do for this country for once.
If the worst comes to the worst we could always ask the Calais fishermen for help, that normally works.
I found Mike Barnard's article on this subject in the January edition of "Light Aviation" most interesting. The article advocated a rather different, and to me more practical and logical, approach to the future of PPL instrument flying in Europe compared to that being pushed by AOPA.
I'm afraid that keeping the IMCR isn't something I'd be inclined to write to my MP about.
I know I won't be popular for saying it, but I do not see the perpetuation of the IMCR being sustainable, or desirable, in anything but the very short term. There are practical alternatives, albeit not fully developed, on the table from EASA (not generally top of my favourite organisations list) and to me the way forward is to look at these and work with EASA to finalise the details for new Europe wide instrument flying qualifications approprate for PPL holders from any EASA member country.
