Originally Posted by
meleagertoo
The bottom line of all this is that despite all the denial merchant/naysayers' rather ludicrous and pathetic attempts to excuse this as being about misunderstandings and misapprehensions of the rules it is abundantly clear that here we have an utterly lawless unlicenced PPL prepared to break any and every rule that gets in his way regardless of ratings, certificates or anything else in order to earn a few quid. Plus habitual hirers willing to employ him and his ilk on a regular basis.
Does anyone believe previous arrangenemts with Henderson were significantly different in legality?
Does anyone actually believe Ibbotson wasn't paid to carry out this job? Really?
Does anyone believe this flight even has a hint, the merest smidgeon of 'cost sharing'about it to apply a veneer of legality about it? Or that it would make it acceptable if it did?
Does anyone believe for a second that the agent didn't know full well that this was a totally buckshee arrangement, or that he hadn't knowingly contracted dozens, if not scores of these illegal trips before?
Does anyone seriously believe that this isn't the merest tiny tip of a huge iceberg of parasitic fake commercial operations going on in full public view with no effort whatsoever being made to stop it?
Wake up!
Get real people!
Puhleese!
There's an elephant in our Cessna 150 that is shattering the public's opinion of GA.
We need to do something about this!
Exactly, maybe now the public will themselves seek out legitimate operators (whom might finally see some fruit for their labours) The strict adherence to the relevant rules and the cost implications thereof has put legitimate operators at a substantial disadvantage to those exploiting the grey area- a grey area that has often been too easily navigated by VFR pilots holding a PPL. I wonder if many realise the sheer amount of documentation (rules, multitude of policies, insurance, worthiness etc.) that genuine operators have to maintain and keep current.
Unfortunately, in this case, the grey area proved to be the undoing of this flight, in more ways than one. Hopefully the conclusions of the investigation into this tragedy will shed some light, provide clarity to all, and prevent all involved in aviation from getting lost in the mist of uncertainty going forward.