getthereitis, passenger pressure, flying to meet a schedule all are seem very plausible contributing factors. In the end, the pilot showed very poor judgement by proceeding to land in Mount Gambier in the first place and probably concluded from this that it would be fine to take-off again in similar conditions. Whether PPL should get an IR for angel flights is obviously debatable (I believe not necessary as these blokes should know when to make no-go decision) but I am strong advocate that basic IF (that's part of the PPL syllabus) should include at least some flying in real IMC. It personally wasn't until I did my own IR flight training and flew in clouds that I could truly appreciate how formidable an exercise this is. Those who "think they know" are just kidding themselves. Add to that some uneventful flying for a couple of years and there's the perfect mix to find out the pain of flying in zero visibility the hard way.
Last edited by Okihara; 18th Aug 2019 at 07:44.