boscomantico wrote:
But what is the point? That’s how class E works, see and avoid in VMC for both VFR and IFR.
I was above a cloud layer. The other was obviously below. errr. You never know with the brits.
The main point being that the TAS may have saved my bacon that day.
I have also been helped by a traffic system recently when descended out of controlled airspace on top of another aircraft. While the Uk system is screwed up it does drum into you that you can be IFR and entirely responsible for your own separation.
It is very easy to fall into the trap of “I have an IFR clearance and so I can just follow it” particularly when talking to a radar controller in G or E airspace.
Traffic systems greatly enhance your ability to protect yourself from other transponding traffic.
I agree that see and avoid doesn’t always work well, but that has little to do with VFR or IFR.
What worries me is the traffic I can’t see, which is on TAS. It happens on many flight, that there is traffic I just can’t find with eyeball mk1.
That is completely normal, and having TAS/TCAS is what separates the “Mk1 Eyeball is your best friend” heavily institutionalised crowd from the “Mk1 Eyeball misses most traffic” crowd. Unfortunately the only way to settle this is to take some samples of the former up for a flight, on a sunny weekend 
Aviathor wrote:
The other was obviously below. errr. You never know with the brits.
Timothy wrote:
I don’t think that flying VFR in IMC is a wholly or peculiarly Brit thing.
You should ask the controllers at Rouen what they think about that. The was a lady that was particularly vocal about that a few years back. She has now moved to Nice.
JasonC wrote:
I have also been helped by a traffic system recently when descended out of controlled airspace on top of another aircraft.
This and Timothy’s example show why the VMC minima include horizontal and vertical distance to cloud. Something some people think is pointless.
I don’t think that flying VFR in IMC is a wholly or peculiarly Brit thing.
It isn’t, but it is considered poor form by others to discuss it openly on forums Germany for example has a special procedure called “IVFR” which has a special concession for Egelsbach 
You should ask the controllers at Rouen what they think about that. The was a lady that was particularly vocal about that a few years back. She has now moved to Nice.
Yeah… I remember her absolutely vile attack on Brits, posted on one nowadays largely defunct UK site about 10 years ago. The attack was such a comical caricature of a stupid inept pilot (her other job was caricature cartoons, for which she was/is famous in France) that many doubted the poster was real. I posted something wondering whether the poster was a certain UK pilot known for beating people up all over the place (and making outrageous and obviously false claims re his qualifications) and she contacted me by PM, saying she will record a special message at the end of her airport’s ATIS (back then Rouen’s ATIS was on a phone line also) to prove her identity. I called the number but the whole message was so badly spoken I could not understand most of it. But clearly she was an ATCO there, since nobody would have gone to such a length for a windup.
For sure France gets some number of Brits flying there on the IMC Rating, illegally. But they probably stick out because the local club GA is – much like most UK rental GA – grounded when the cloudbase is below ~1500ft Especially Rouen which used to be a popular Brit destination, before customs were withdrawn in 2012, but often suffering from low cloud (I cancelled most planned trips there due to wx).
This and Timothy’s example show why the VMC minima include horizontal and vertical distance to cloud. Something some people think is pointless.
I think most people think it is pointless because there is no way to measure the spacing, and obeying it is impractical in most flying scenarios in “real” weather, where if you were sufficiently spaced vertically you would be either below the MSA or busting CAS above. In much of the UK south east it is impossible to achieve the required cloud spacing while meeting these other conditions. No doubt Sweden is different especially if you have an IR but in the UK we are often stuck with flying at 2300ft in or out of cloud…
Also if you are VMC on top and somebody climbs up under you, neither will see the other, without TCAS. And almost nobody who actually flies in any cloud is radiating something else like FLARM, or are likely to be radiating some portable ADS-B OUT. What most of that community does use is Mode C. In the UK, virtually all non-TXP or Mode A flyers avoid IMC, and most don’t go above 2000ft.
Peter wrote:
most don’t go above 2000ft.
Which is one of the reasons I prefer to be high; not only that there are fewer other aircraft, but they are invariably squawking.
Peter wrote:
Rouen which used to be a popular Brit destination, before customs were withdrawn in 2012,
Please check your facts.
Rouen was one of the fields where Brighton Air (or whatever their name was) cleared customs after Pontoise lost customs in 2012.
Let me also remind you that I met you at Rouen a couple of years ago when you came for a day trip from the UK.
AFAIK nothing has changed since then. 6 hrs PNR 7 days a week according to AIP.
