WOW!
Let me recap.
43 year old plane
70plus year old pilot
20 year old copilot
questionable airmen certificates
3:30 in the morning
Attempts to make this flight look like a DEMO flight instead of a charter for hire flight///possibly to avoid paperwork or regulation problems.
all of this prior to takeoff!
then the takeoff and climb to altitude followed in some 10 total minutes of flight by a ''nosedive'' into mountainous terrain.
6 or 7 passengers plus luggage, possibly musical instruments.
Possible, repeat, POSSIBLE routine musician hijinx going on, including internet posting of picture while flying.
BUT wasn't the interior looking nice after an update!
wWhat I have learned:
It is hard to fly airplanes well. Losing control at night or on instruments is possible without great attention to instruments and the task at hand.
Inexperience, especially in ''hand flying'' on instruments in airplanes that are ''demanding'' can be easily dealt with BY INSTRUCTION, and ExPERIENCE but is not done because of...wait for it....
MONEY.
I was fortunate in having to ''hand fly'' some demanding airplanes at altitude in all wx and time of day early in my career.
Later in my career, more foregiving planes were still demanding enough that I forced myself to ''hand fly'' as much as possible to maintain proficiency.
FLYINg is done largely with the mind...constantly doing many things (we call it multitasking now) but ''aviating'' still has to be first and navigating second...but a darn important second!