If the BIR is limited to the EU, what happens to Switzerland, Norway, Serbia, Monrenegro, Albania, Macedonia…
And then how do you get down to Greece? You have to go down Italy and then turn left to Corfu.
It’s limited to EASA countries, AFAIK, this includes Switzerland & Norway
Flying IFR to Greece or Canaries will need planning or permissions
No different than EASA LAPL
For all the effort, it seems crippled.
No chance of a US IR on the back of it, too.
And you are doing at least 90% of the CBIR work. You have to… IFR is IFR; ATC and airports make no distinction.
Peter wrote:
For all the effort, it seems crippled.No chance of a US IR on the back of it, too.
And you are doing at least 90% of the CBIR work. You have to… IFR is IFR; ATC and airports make no distinction.
Peter, it is less than 90% for sure! And you could upgrade it to CB-IR and then further on the back of it.
How much is a BIR course (flying + exams) and how fast can it be done?
Nowhere in Ireland is offering it. Not surprising really as with the UK not recognising it, it puts a big barrier in using it. A flight from here to anywhere on the continent couldn’t be completed under IFR using a BIR as it would necessarily pass through the UK.
Nobody in the UK will know the pilot’s license, so it would be safe provided you don’t land 
Well, provided you don’t run a forum 
and nobody knows your aircraft reg, to look up for tracking.
I don’t want to sound like an old fart, and I have heard this kind of argument many times from old farts in the GA business, but to learn to fly a plane to the test standard takes x hours. The value of x depends on many factors, with the biggest being the person’s ability. In IFR especially a fair bit of mental ability is needed (a lot, in addition to what is needed for a PPL). Speak to any old hand in the “IR” business and they will tell you something similar. The old 55hr JAA IR would take almost everybody that long to pass the IRT… one could chip bits off around the edges but it doesn’t come to much. The big cost savings come from stuff like using the IMCR training towards it (which is not available outside the UK) and training with a freelancer (if you can find one; they aren’t common, one I know is a “difficult character”, and one I spoke to the other day charges £105/hr).
So advertised savings tend to not materialise in practice. Most IR pilots are cash-rich and time-poor (relatively speaking) and lifestyle factors dominate – doing the whole thing locally is really big, even if it costs a lot more, and that usually means avoiding the “IR FTO” pipeline.
I’ve been around this block well and truly.
Nobody actually fully replied to my Q above but if I could not legally overfly the countries south of Croatia, that is a major loss of value. Also no US IR ever (other than the full standalone one) is likely to be noticed one day because it affects US flying holidays and makes N-reg flying more or less impractical in Europe.
I would forecast the BIR to go the way of the EIR, but it will take years for it to become apparent.
Hi Peter, you miss the new advancements – much cheaper Flight Sims that allow training at your (or instructors) home to the right standard. Then only finishing off in the real plane, again, starting with a freelancer and then moving off to ATO. For example, @Snoopy has got that set up at home, some others do too.
It REALLY does help.
arj1 wrote:
much cheaper Flight Sims that allow training at your (or instructors) home to the right standard.
That’s interesting. I wonder if it could be done remotely using something such as AnyDesk for screen sharing or even Zoom? Interesting possibilities!
dublinpilot wrote:
arj1 wrote: much cheaper Flight Sims that allow training at your (or instructors) home to the right standard.That’s interesting. I wonder if it could be done remotely using something such as AnyDesk for screen sharing or even Zoom? Interesting possibilities!
I know of at least one instructor that was doing precisely that – working with his student that was based remotely, while connected on teleconferencing software.
