I bumped into Andy a long time ago. Very sad.
It strikes me that there is very little wrong with the flying a single engine machine on this type of work. Nick can provide us with the stats....
No doubt it was equiped for NVFR/IFR work but was the pilot.
NO DISRESPECT here....don't go blasting me for this. Like I said.....I knew Andy as an associate as most pilots out of NZ do.
There are very few of us that haven't bumped into each other. The list of pilots I have met that now rest below our land is starting to become scary.
I fly with a lot of guys who have brand new IFR tickets. I used to be one of them. Very few of these guys would survive minutes in an IFR environment without someone to show them the ropes. Fortunately I had a bunch of very experienced lads teach me a thing or two...cheers Bakes, DC, BM, SD.
It is one thing to have bombed around on the sim and the heli simulating this but entirely another to be out doing it. As we all know the ticket is a licence to learn IFR. Do I hear a round of "Amens...."?
The reason I asked the question regarding the WX was obviously to accertain whether this was a time when more of the IFR skills were needed as opposed to the NVFR. If you haven't got a lot of time up on the clocks in cloud then offshore at night without a horizon is paramount to dangerous.
We have a bunch of Northern bases up here in CA that we service 24/7. It is so black without moonlight that once you lift off from the lit area it is like flying in outer space. You have to be on the clocks or you are dead. Technically it is planned as VFR but it is 100% IFR. I take my hat off to the pilots at these bases. I certainly notice the intensity of the workload when I am asked to fill in for a night shift up there. You cannot do this work with only a NVFR rating or a basic IFR without experience.
The trend in Queensland is testimony to this.
RIP Andy Carpenter.