"Gary Drescher" wrote in message
...
One reason that IMC isn't even required for an instrument rating (let
alone
for a private pilot certificate) is that (benign) IMC is rare in many
parts
of the country. In those places, an IMC requirement would make it all but
impossible to become a pilot.

On the other hand, I've seen level-5 thunderstorms come through and
technically it was still VFR... Not that I would have even pulled my
airplane out of the hangar at those times...

That's kind of the reason that I haven't been that serious about getting my
instrument rating... Around here, usually if the weather is bad enough to be
IFR, I don't really want to be up in it... Sometimes we get the mild IFR
conditions where it's just low clouds and such, but it sure does seem like
everytime I get weathered out of a flight, it's not somthing I would want to
be going up in even with an instument rating...