"Gary Drescher" wrote in message
...

Yes, and that's perfectly appropriate. What the author fails to understand
is that the primary purpose of flying IFR is to have ATC take
responsibility for aircraft separation if visibility isn't good enough to
see and avoid visually. The conditions during JFK Jr.'s flight were
entirely adequate for visual separation.

Flying IFR does not help you use instruments to keep the plane upright in
the absence of a visible horizon. Contrary to naive opinion, that's a
*VFR* skill, and it's taught (in the US anyway) as part of the basic
private-pilot curriculum. The bulk of instrument-rating training takes for
granted the basic ability to fly by instruments, and concentrates on the
details of en route and approach procedures.


So why is it that US airlines were flying IFR in the US for years before
Airways Traffic Control was established?