One important thing pilots too often minimize is the need for proficiency at their craft. Just because you have something in your wallet saying you legally can do Thing A, it doesn’t mean you can always do it well, or to minimum standards. An FAA medical certificate is similar: On a certain day not that long ago, you met the minimum standards for one, but if you, say, break a leg, you no longer can fly except as awkward self-loading cargo.
The instrument rating is another excellent example—just because we have one, it doesn’t mean we always can go out to the airport and launch into a 200-foot overcast. As much as we might want it to be otherwise, we need to establish and maintain instrument proficiency in that kind of takeoff and departure to be able to do it well. Sure…if we’re not legally current, or are legal but rusty, we can give it a shot and lean on the autopilot for the hard work.
