The IMC Rating is a UK national rating and is designed as a 'get you out of trouble' qualification and not as a replacement for the Instrument Rating.

The IMC Rating may not be placed onto an EASA licence. However, the IMC Rating is equivalent to the IR (Restricted) which can be put onto an EASA licence. Once you have obtained the IMC Rating you may apply to the UK CAA to have an IR (Restricted) endorsed on your EASA licenceFlying a helicopter in IMC conditions should be avoided. Most helicopters do not have the instruments to navigate safely under IMC conditions. The ones that do the pilots need to train flying on instruments for many hours. Many people have crashed and died flying in IMC conditions.

It is possible to get an Instrument rating (IR) on a helicopter but it is very rare. Few helicopter pilots are IR rated.

Instrument meteorological conditions (IMC) is an aviation flight category that describes weather conditions that require pilots to fly primarily by reference to instruments, and therefore under instrument flight rules (IFR), rather than by outside visual references under visual flight rules (VFR). Typically, this means flying in cloudy or bad weather. Pilots sometimes train to fly in these conditions with the aid of products like Foggles, specialized glasses that restrict outside vision, forcing the student to rely on instrument indications only.

The weather conditions required for flight under VFR are known as visual meteorological conditions (VMC). IMC and VMC are mutually exclusive. In fact, instrument meteorological conditions are defined as less than the minima specified for visual meteorological conditions. The boundary criteria between VMC and IMC are known as the VMC minima. There is also a concept of "marginal VMC", which are certain conditions above VMC minima, which are fairly close to one or more of the VMC minima.