However, I no long harbor the notion that an IR is going to help us
fly more, or longer, or more regularly -- at least not until we can
afford something like a Pilatus.
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

You know, my instrument rating doesn't currently help me that much
with my Pilatus being VFR only...

Its great being constantly confused with PC-12s by ATC though. I think
my Vne is actually higher than their's, but the only way I'd ever
outrun a PC-12 is if we were both aimed straight at the ground...

Jay, I will give you an alternate piece of data on IFR flight: Out of
my long XC flights (400nm+) prior to buying the Pilatus (VFR only) I
have had to fly in IMC at some point on more than 75% of them. After
purchasing a VFR only aircraft, I have had to land and wait out
weather on 2 out of 5 long XC flights, where I could have easily
continued non-stop if the plane was equipped for IFR.

The issue I see with the way you calculated the % of time that the
weather is IMC, is that on a cross country flight you need a constant
path of VMC weather from departure to destination in order to make the
flight. I would be really interested to find out what the results
would change to, if your friend did a search on the number of days
that every ASOS station from IOW to Cincinnati or Detroit was showing
VFR. That would give a much better read on the percent of days that it
is possible to do a cross country under VFR.

Thanks,
Eric Bartsch
1959 Pilatus P-3 A-848
http://www.hometown.aol.com/bartscher/P3A848.html