Timothy, so sorry to hear about the accident, however no-one was hurt, which is the main thing. We all have good days and bad days and to err is, as an earlier postee mentioned, is human. Well done to you for your candour and being able to look this incident square in the face. Looking forward to seeing both you and G-LIZZ back in the air soon.
Timothy, I have no idea who you are, but kudos to your candor and openness. We can all learn from that – both in terms of flying and also in terms of being honest to ourselves and others. I doff my hat to you, Sir!
Good on you for sharing Timothy. Helps the rest of us ask, “could I do that?” Well, of course, we are all prone to error.
There is real value in learning from others experience, so appreciate you sharing what actually happened.
I also hope it stems the speculation going on elsewhere.
Cheers, and sorry for your (hull) loss fella.
Andy
There is a thin line between a close call and an accident. The close calls seldom get publicity.
How many of us haven’t at one time or another made just the same kind of judgement error as Timothy did, but by luck just happened to make it?
I think we’ve all made a judgement error at some stage, that could have turned out nasty, but we got away with.
Let he without sin, cast the first stone.
Timothy and I have had our disagreements in the past, but I’m sorry to see this happen to him, and glad that everyone is ok.
I also find it reassuring that the responses on EuroGA have been inline with the prevailing spirit of EuroGA 
The nicest of all GA forums.
No one likes to see, or hear, of another pilot make an error of judgement, and lose the aeroplane. I do not know Timothy, but felt the angst and sadness in his statement. On the very positive side, he was not physically hurt, (I hope), and that whilst difficult just now, the metalwork can always be replaced.
Yes I am aware where they are, it is one of the places I do want to go to since a very long time.
And you are right, that could well be the showstopper unless it can be repaired on location which seems unlikely.
Timothy is a very experienced former multi crew pilot and IRI and has always discussed these things openly. I am delighted that he has the opportunity to reflect on his decision making at leisure rather than from a hospital bed.
As Dave P has discussed elsewhere, there is a lot to be learned from this incident. While it doesn’t compare directly to the Blackbushe accident, in both cases very experienced single pilots continued unstable approaches and ended up off the end of the runway. In the one case, the approach was never stable, and in this case, it was destabilised by the pilot in poor visibility.
The common factors shared may include:
- Limiting runway
- unstable approach
- Perceived ressure from passengers
I am not a hanging judge, and I am not interested in stones. What I am interested in is learning from accidents and incidents and this is posted in that spirit. St. Mary’s in poor weather is a very challenging destination and has several unique challenges:
- Non precision timed NDB approach
- short (and possibly wet) runways
- unusual airfield topography (severely humpbacked runway)
- unusual weather (also shared by the Channel Islands) combining strong winds with low cloud and poor visibility
While one can mitigate any factor in isolation, the combination of factors may cause further thoughts.
One key lesson I would take away from this is that when you have commenced a missed approach, you are committed to carrying it out.
