Just an anecdote which may or may not affect your decision; the
circumstances are not parallel: I once gave a private checkride to a fairly
well off business owner, so well off that he had two planes on leaseback to
the FBO I worked for...a Cherokee Six and a Seneca. Obviously, the Six had
more instrumentation than your proposed plane. When he needed to travel in
instrument conditions, he had me fly the plane. Years later, when I ran an
AST-300 simulator business (I know, I know, it was a Flight Training
Device), I tried to talk him into at least getting a couple of hours in the
AST-300. "No, no...I do not have an instrument rating because I will never
use it! If I need to fly in those conditons I will hire a pilot." Note that
I was not trying to talk him into getting the rating, just to get an hour or
so of instrument instruction because it had been so long since his private
checkride. You can anticipate the end of the story...he was on the west side
of Puget Sound, the ceiling was low, it was after dark, and his daughter was
having a birthday party on the east side of Puget Sound. They found the
wreckage the next morning in a junkyard, where searchers had missed it
because of all the other white, metal things like refrigerators lying
around. Would a couple of hours of sim time taught him to keep the airplane
right side up while climbing through a layer to VFR conditions? Who can say?
But I always think of him when someone says "Oh, no...I will never fly in
instrument conditions so I don't need the training."

Bob Gardner

"Bob Martin" wrote in message
om...
I'm debating whether to try for my IFR rating in the spring. I won't
have the time or money to start till then, but that's not the point.

The big question is, is it worth it right now? The only flying I
really do is cruising around, mild aerobatics, some formation stuff,
and occasionally a trip to the neighboring states. An IFR ticket
would be a "nice to have" but I don't think I'd really be able to make
use of it--our plane isn't IFR equipped, and probably won't be for the
forseeable future.

Any suggestions?