Originally Posted by
Maoraigh1
Humans are pack animals. The instructors were likely seen as not his group. What the AAIB cannot investigate is his flying social group, where this sort of flying was discussed.
A C150 Aerobat joining with 2 Maules on farmstriping is a labrador running off to join the wolf pack.
The reluctance to wear shoulder harness is weird. Otherwise he was just moving into a new flying scenario, which was possibly unfamiliar to the instructors he knew.
Weird but not that unusual. I was flying with a North Sea offshore pilot one day and noticed that his shoulder straps were not fastened (the straps were behind his back). Assuming he had inadvertently forgotten to fasten them, I pointed it out, and he told me that he didn’t like wearing them (found them uncomfortable). I let it go for that flight (he was the Captain), but on subsequent flights when he tried to repeat it, I insisted that he fastened them.
On another occasion, a different pilot, with him driving a company hire car on duty (on the way from simulator), he fastened the seat belt over his empty seat (to stop the warning sounding), and then sat on top of the fastened belt. Again, asked him why, he just said he didn’t like wearing seat belts.