Getting the IMC Rating (UK Only)

For UK pilots who have no commercial aspirations, the IMC Rating is recognised as one of the most useful additions to the PPL. It is comparatively easy to obtain and to keep current, whilst covering the key aspects of flying in IMC and under IFR.

What can you do with it?

The IMC rating permits you to fly IFR in IMC in airspace up to and including class D. This includes taking IFR transits and flying instrument procedures.

Unlike with the IR, you cannot fly in airways and the IMC rating can only be used in the UK. If you need to fly IFR/IMC outside of the UK or in airways then you need a full Instrument Rating.

Where to go for your IMC

Most flight training schools are able to offer training for and examination in the IMC rating. Logically the first port of call should be the school with which you did your PPL training.

Prerequisites

Before commencing the IMC training, you must hold a PPL-A licence (NB: not NPPL) and a have a minimum of 10 hours flying as P1 post PPL. You also need to hold a Flight Radio Telephony Operator's Licence.

There are no additional medical requirements.

Books

There are, of course, many text books on the IMC rating, however the definitive publication seems to be Book 5 in Trevor Thom’s The Air Pilot’s Manual series, ISBN 1-84336-069-1. Although this book makes heavy weather of some aspects of the IMC training, it does cover all the material very effectively.

Nung Sornying publishes the IMC Confuser, which is in the same style and is a companion to the PPL Confuser.

Aircraft requirements

The aircraft must be equipped for legal flight in IMC/IFR. For the training to be effective it must have ADF, DME, VOR and Glide Slope. A second altimeter is not required but is very useful. You can use your own aircraft if it is suitably equipped and legal for training for a UK rating.

Flight training

Unless exempted (see LASORS E3.4 for full details, but essentially there are exemptions for those who have held IRs in the past and reductions for those who have a Night Rating or the AOPA Radio Navigation Certificate) you must complete a recognised course of training before taking the Ground Examinations and Flight Test. The course must include at least 15 hours instrument training (up to 2 hours of this can be completed in a CAA approved simulator). At least 10 of the 15 hours must be flown by sole reference to the instruments.

During your training you’ll become very accustomed to wearing an IMC hood or “foggles” designed to ensure that you can only see the instruments. These can cause some spatial disorientation and take a bit of getting used to. In particular, it is likely that, at least in early training, your instructor will do the landings after an IMC training session. This is because the transition from under the hood to normal VFR flying can be disorientating.  

Initial training concentrates on building up your instrument scan and your confidence in using the instruments to interpret aircraft attitude etc.  Unusual attitude recovery using just the instruments follows and this can be a bit hard on the senses! Partial panel work follows, in which various instruments are “failed”, singly and in combination to simulate either electrical or vacuum failure.  Eventually you’ll end up trying to coordinate turns using just the compass.

En-route beacon tracking follows and this is usually an enjoyable and relatively easy part of the course. On the horizon though is non-precision approach procedures, using NDB or NDB/DME and these do take some time to perfect. Typically half of all IMC-R training hours is spent mastering non-precision approaches.

ILS approaches and SRAs round off the approach training. Neither of these is especially difficult and there is something very satisfying about flying the ILS down to minima, taking the hood off and seeing that you are spot on the centre line and at just the right height. These instrument systems really do work!

Examinations

On completion of flight training a practical IMC skills test must be successfully completed. In addition, a single IMC theory paper must be passed. The two tests can be done in either order.

The skills test essentially covers all the material that you have covered in your practical flight training. Because this is a UK only rating, your IMC instructor can also perform the skills test, if he is also an IMC examiner. The IMC skills test currently costs £175.

A typical IMC skills test might be to take off, climb to an appropriate flight level and then track away from the airfield using the NDB.  After a while, you’ll then pick up a VOR track and fly to that before tracking back to the airport.  Along the way you’ll do unusual attitude recoveries and partial panel work.  At various times you might be asked to show where you are on the chart.

Once back at the airfield you’ll do a couple of non-precision approaches and, if the facilities are available, ILS and/or radar approaches.

The written examination is a twenty question, two hour multiple choice paper that in many ways is like the Navigation Paper taken during PPL training. Some old material is covered (probably long forgotten in some cases, such as how to use the whiz wheel).  In addition there is much attention to the use of en-route and airfield nav aids, with some awkwardly worded questions that seem more designed to catch the student out than to test understanding.

The IMC Confuser may be found to be useful both for seeing the sort of questions that get asked and for working out why a particular answer that seems wrong is, in fact, not!

Applying for the rating

Once you have completed the skills test and theory exam, you and your instructor will between you need to complete Form FCL99 (SRG1125), which can be downloaded from the CAA web site. You must also send in your log book, signed by the CFI immediately beneath the IMC Skills Test entry.  If you have a JAR licence then you do not need to send the licence in with your application, otherwise you should send it.

You also need to send either a cheque or credit card details to cover the fee, which, at £76, works out at about twenty quid a word on the scruffy piece of paper you get back with your new rating!

You cannot exercise the privileges of your IMC rating until you have the new page for your licence from the CAA. Typically it takes about three weeks for your documents to be returned.

Validity of the IMC rating

The IMC Rating is valid for 25 months from the date of your IMC skills test. Renewal is by flight test and this can be conveniently completed as part of the two-yearly hour with an instructor required to keep your PPL current.

Thoughts on getting the IMC-R

If you have any plans for land-away trips outside of the local area then before long you’ll come up against the need for some sort of instrument rating.  The IMC Rating serves admirably if your flying is UK based and it is a much cheaper and less time-consuming rating to get and to maintain than the full Instrument Rating.

There is a temptation to rush into the IMC-R soon after passing the PPL Skills Test but I would advise against this.  Starting on IMC is rather like being back in the circuit in your pre-first solo days – for a while you’ll feel overloaded with all the new tasks that must be performed.  To get the best out of the IMC training you really need to be fluent in your VMC flying.

I found that the IMC training improved my general flying immensely.  The need to fly accurate headings, precise altitude management and the general requirement to be able to put the aircraft where you want it are all contributory factors.

Don’t underestimate the IMC Theory Test.  It has awkward questions, especially about VOR tracking, that need careful consideration. There’s the odd fast ball that can require a quite detailed knowledge of how nav aids work to get to the wanted answer. Finally there is a route to PLOG and then answer questions about. It’s rather like the PPL Navigation examination on steroids and a small mistake made early on can result in the wrong answer to many subsequent questions. The two hours allowed should be plenty – don’t rush!

Making use of the IMC-R

The IMC-R gives you a lot and is an enormous contributor to flight safety if used properly and kept current. Probably the most difficult aspect of flying IMC is non-precision approaches – usually NDB/DME procedures. Unfortunately, you don’t actually need to do these procedures in anger very often. So it makes a lot of sense to regularly practice them and keep them current for that “rainy day”.

The biggest benefit of the IMC-R is that it lets you fly en-route in IMC.  Even if it’s just a few minutes of flying through that cloud that’s looming ahead, that’s just so much better than getting caught in the “ground going up, cloud coming down” situation that the VFR-only pilot has to contend with.

Once you have your IMC-R you’ll start thinking differently about the altitude that you fly at.  Hitherto your ceiling has tended to be the cloud base but now it’s likely to be the onset of class-A airspace, which is generally rather higher. You find that you plan your routes IFR and if you actually end up in VMC then so much the better – a nice view as well!

On the other hand, there is nothing quite like flying VMC on top, above the clouds. You’re still IFR of course, but the views are stunning, generally the visibility is superb and you’ve left most of the turbulence way below you.

You’ll hear some saying that the IMC-R is a get you out of trouble rating, whilst others will tell you it’s a get you into trouble rating! In fact it is neither. It is an exceptionally useful addition to the PPL, but like any other skill it must be kept current. Do that and your flying experience and safety will be greatly enhanced.

Internet sources

Form FCL99 (SRG1125)

Tim's Air Navigation Simulator

Peter Holy adds some comments:

Next, if you are doing the IMC Rating to fly reasonable distances around the UK, try to find an instructor who has done a good amount of IFR for real; perhaps a current or retired airline pilot.

Finally, check out what sort of aircraft will be available to you to fly when you are finished. Most IMC Rating training is done "under thehood" in VMC, and can thus be done in an aircraft that would be both insufficiently equipped for real IFR and not carry the equipment required for IFR in controlled airspace. However, if you cannot fly IFR in controlled airspace then you cannot fly to many UK airports that have instrument approaches.