WarleyAir wrote:
I can’t help wondering if this sounds like an ‘Incapacitated Pilot’ with desperate control input from the PAX.
It sounds very much like a VFR into IMC situation and that fits all the known facts.
Another crap piece from media:
I still wonder what kind of training/licence one needs to do that specific flight profile safely?
Not sure how much CPL TK would help me hand flying for 2h in low level VFR by night and dark sea/imc around? The most “skilled guy” to do that mission just crashed…
Dave_Phillips wrote:
I prefer the more simplistic view that “If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck and walks like a duck, it’s probably
Tasty?
Ibra wrote:
I still wonder what kind of training/licence one needs to do that specific flight profile safely?
The type of training that reinforces/amplifies the relevant bits of the law, the human factors/physiology, technical and the weather implications which ultimately highlights the facts the it cannot be done safely. Of course, that takes a mindset that recognises the value of enhanced theoretical trading. 
This reminds me of a time when a whole bunch of us were due to go to Chateau la Chasagne on a very hot weekend. The only two people who decided to divert to Dijon, on the basis of WAT, were the two professional pilots. There were a number of close calls (one where we actually thought the aircraft had crashed, until it reappeared along the bottom of the valley.)
There is something to be said for TK.
What is TK?
Edit: And what is WAT?
WAT = Weight, Altitude, Temperature.
Not sure about TK – could be something ‘Knowledge’
Sure ‘Theoretical Knowledge’
I cannot see how more theoretical knowledge would have helped here.
An EASA CPL with its 10 hours of instrument flight included might have helped.
The difference between a pilot who does not depart because of WAT and one which does is not that the one who departs lacks theoretical knowledge, but has a different attitude. And that depends on the environment they operate in.
You will certainly find more pilots who adhere strictly to SOPs and limits in the commercial world. But you will also find cowboys, as evidenced by thise who come to gried busting minima and trying to land at VFR fields in fog
I think the point Jason and Timothy are making is that it’s not just the acquisition of the TK, but also of the mental attitude that makes you go through the effort of getting it, which is valuable as a survival tool in our risky hobby.
