That is not surprising. The “proof of hours” has always been an area ripe for scrutiny. Fairly obviously, otherwise many people would just fill up their logbook with IFR time in Bongo Bongo Land… The IFR PIC time requirement was specifically formulated to protect the FTO industry.
I got this myself with a US DPE when using some old long VFR flights towards the FAA IR. Nothing unusual.
Ibra wrote:
I recall after passing your test, the NAA asked you to send them documentation of IFR PIC hours? like flight plans?
You remember correctly. It was a PITA and took months to resolve.
Hi all, posting to let you know the BIR is real :-)
I went to CZ to spend a week at Aviaticky Klub for ATO training followed by a successful checkride! I’ll post a longer story later, but meanwhile want to thank @Snoopy for convincing me to go for BIR instead of CBIR in the first place, for providing remote training and all kinds of other advice, and for introducing me to the guys in Pilzen. Also thx @ErlendV for being so responsive while I was working on the theory part and thx to my IRI Anneleen Smits who gave me freelance IFR training in Belgium so I wouldn’t show up in CZ without any real IFR experience – the plan was to finish training in a week so I needed some preparation and a sanity check.
For Viktor and his crew at the ATO itself, they are the exact opposite of all the horror stories you sometimes read online – no nonsense, flexible, goal oriented, default mode is trust. We arranged everything over some e-mails, I sent scans of my license and medical and that was it – they booked a G1000 C172 for a week without any guarantees on outcome (which was also made clear upfront). I showed up as agreed on Monday, we filled paperwork (a lot of it) and started flying. Training went as planned, mostly at Karlovy Vary and at Dresden. First time I paid anything was after day three, all in line with prices as published on their website and only for what was actually flown over a week of course. I can 100% recommend them – anyone interested can shoot them a mail.
Below is LKLV Karlovy Vary (photo was taken on the way to Dresden).
Congratulations, well done and enjoy your IFR flights!
Congratulations!
When I started the training I also had both options, and the ATO even told me about the new and very cheap SIM they set up for the BIR training.
I would agree that the BIR should be obtained a lot quicker than the CB-IR, because to actually go flying there is always some hassle involved. You can clearly focus on the training, no matter the aircraft’s status or actual weather.
But then again what is there to train. The practice part is about understanding how to read the charts under pressure, where to obtain required information, to interactuate a lot with the panel in any detail level, to communicate, to obtain an organised cockpit, and to get the flight planning to new standards. And maybe also to learn about emergency behaviour. That’s what I would call the basics of IR.
If there’s nothing more that influences a decision I would tell anyone to opt for the BIR, because the CB-IR involves a lot of time and, yes, hassle.
Now that I am halfway through the hours towards my CB-IR I’d add that I am still glad I decided to do it this way. I‘ve had actual icing experiences, learned a lot about avoidance strategies for very different weather situations, and experienced what to do if weather deteriorated during a longer flight session. Last time we were flying practically all the flight in actual IMC with developing CB. We had another pilot with us who was constantly checking in-flight weather. We departed in moderate rain with visibility around 1.5km. I’m in the weather all the time and that is what counts for me. I already feel way better prepared for any weather situations to come, and can discuss all this stuff while actually flying in it.
After 20 hours I still have things to learn about the avionics in my aircraft, but I’m on it. I have visited a lot of potential weather alternates (the big international ones) that is a real fun fun to do once, but also a big relief in the head to just know where to go in case something turns against you. And it continues all the way to actually filing the flight plans and to play around with the CTOT issue and so on.
If not during training I would have had to do all that on my own later, being the only pilot in the cockpit, without the wisdom of my instructor. And everyone knows that if it’s not for a goal most are too lazy to do that training.
In my particular case flying with the instructor is even cheaper (or at least not more expensive) than sitting at the flight schools sim. But that’s another story and may really be specific. Typically it should be cheaper to use a sim.
Tango wrote:
Hi all, posting to let you know the BIR is real :-)
Congratulations, well done!
(I’m working on it as well, slowly…)
Congratulations and well done!
Congratulations!
Once you have an IR, you will never look back 
Thx to all!
For anyone considering BIR or CB-IR: I don’t disagree with what @UdoR wrote. But as always, it depends – on your context, goals, priors and I guess also your preferred way of learning. For me, being able to do sim training on my own laptop was an absolute killer feature – I got remote training at home in the evening, but you can literally do it anywhere anytime – and you can rehearse and repeat the trainings by yourself until you can do them in your sleep. And then schedule some more remote training
So to each their own I guess – I am certainly glad I decided to switch to BIR (I started with the plan to do CB-IR, actually) but admittedly I can’t compare because I didn’t end up doing both of course. My suggestion would be to schedule a remote training and see if that sort of teaching clicks for you (including the fact you’ll be more on your own for all requirements further down the road during the training), and take that into account before choosing.
