As I said fully agree to the BIR and @Tango. My case is a bit special. I have an extremely proficient instructor at hand (know him through my parents since I did my first steps, and no, not the steps in aviation 
) who is fully dedicated to small GA (still does atlantic crossings at least once per year, and stuff like that, and studied engineering, so has a deep understanding of systems). But he’s not in the ATO any more, so I can only fly with him. The ATO, on the other hand, does only lessons in the school, and the hourly costs of ATO instructor plus sim are higher (for me) than flying with my instructor. So regardless of any rating I wanted to learn from him.
But to any “normal” case who’s not related like this I would suggest, of course, to go the BIR way. The BIR is actually the most “bang for bucks”, because you get a rating rather quick and comparatively cheap, but you start on your own a bit further down on the ladder, me thinks.
Of course I could’ve done the flying also for achieving the BIR, but in my eyes that’s the worst way of all. If I do it actually flying an aircraft, then it’s the CB-IR to aim at.
For the CBIR IIUC you only need 10hrs at an ATO the other 30hrs can be done in your own plane with any IR qualified instructor.
The whole point of the CBIR is that you get competent and then the ATO checks you out and decides how many hours they consider you need in order.to take the test, minimum 10hrs. Some of the 10 hours I believe can be completed on an FNPT2 simulator. The ATO should add PBN as a theory training which might be an add on to the 10hrs but I can’t remember in my case.
@gallois don’t know if that’s mixed up, because it’s the exact point of the BIR (not the CB-IR) that it’s up to the ATO to decide on the amount of training needed, and whether it is done on aircraft or sim or not at all 💪😉. For the CB-IR there is a syllabus for what is to be done in each of the 40 hours. Of course, 40 hours is a minimum requirement, but you can do a lot in that time.
It was some time ago now when I did the CBIR but there are clubs in France (the problem is that now clubs are also DTOs) where you can do the first 30hours of the CBIR before going to the ATO. Often the ATO has an arrangement with the club but one doesn’t have to go the suggested ATO.
In my case I had already done the full IR except for the test. I already had the 40hrs but had to stop for some years for medical reasons. I had to do the theory again and then an assessment with the ATO. I did 10 hours which included SEP and MEP. The PBN was theory.
My flying buddy was a young chap who had done an IR in the USA and he was assessed as.needing 10hrs and did his CPL at the same time but he was convinced that as long as the instructor was an IRI 30 hours of the 40 could be done outside of an ATO. As it is competence that counts.
For someone with an FCL license, I’d discard the CBIR course completely and get a BIR, so much easier.
Doesn’t exist in the UK sadly.
Snoopy wrote:
For someone with an FCL license, I’d discard the CBIR course completely and get a BIR, so much easier.
Snoopy, I agree! But Lee is in the UK, so no luck with BIR here… :(
Snoopy wrote:
I’d discard the CBIR course completely and get a BIR, so much easier
I have plans in my head to travel to northern africa.
And also, my prime destination has ILS and often has ceilings in between 200 and 1000 ft above threshold.
Both not covered by BIR.
Last year the amount of theory wasn’t yet overly clear for the BIR, so my ATO told me to learn the same stuff irrespective of BIR or CBIR.
Finally: BIR is not ICAO standard. I’ve had my share with non-ICAO standard licenses.
But if I started today, don’t know, maybe I’d go the BIR route.
What is the BIR minima?
Peter wrote:
What is the BIR minima?
500ft/600ft DH/MDH and 1500m visibility – should be OK for the many SEP pilots.
Peter, the key here is that you could upgrade to CBIR from BIR with just a skills test.
