Thank you three blades for your reply. I am sure that there are lots of people reading the posts who never reply to them we can see that from the counters. It is nice however when you get someone like yourself post and let us know that our ramblings are having an effect on some out there and maybe will help a few of the silent readers in their future flying. I have to agree with you that your distant 5 hours training are probably of next to no use to you by now. As you say the only answer is to avoid in the first place completely any instrument conditions flight.
Rotorspeed, I call it instrument conditions flight above because cloud and rain are not the only things to cause you to require flight by sole reference to instruments. As mentioned by Rotorbee there are white out conditions and lack of visible horizon due to haze or lighting and surface conditions. I have flown in Arizona at night and trust me when I say it is very easy to start to wonder which side is up when surrounded by hundreds of square miles of nothing with no ground light at all. You also have smog and industrial effects as well as many other traps which only time and a good instructor can go through for you. To say that it is ludicrous to end up inadvertent instrument flight is sadly not true. Yes some people get there because they had a set of blinkers on but others can arrive at that point who are conscientious pilots and simply got caught out by changing conditions quicker than their pilot/captaincy skills could cope with.
When it comes to accidents of any sort I have one golden rule I teach all my students,
“If you believe it could never happen to you then one day it probably will!!!”
This is for the simple reason that it shows an attitude that belittles the problem and blames such incidents on the pilot concerned and takes the though process no further as to how the various factors (and there are always many) combined to end in a smoking hole in the ground.
As I go through your posts on this subject I find myself wondering if one day we shan’t all be reading about you in a report. I say this not to start an argument but to promote honest inward exploring and thought. I do not know you and may well be wrong about your attitude and if so please accept my fullest apologies. However I am sure that I am not alone amongst the experienced pilots here and that if they are honest several of them have probably also thought the same reading your posts. As an aside, the go slower lower principle is only so useful. The obvious final point of a go slower and lower approach is to end up in a hover from one field to another a “relatively” safe but silly situation to be in. Long before this though on the way down you will have a good chance of hitting wires etc. or whilst going slower you will reduce speed to the point where any stability you may have had has gone and the results are predictable. Never go slower than 40 knots this speed can be faster in different types of A/C.
Anne Tenner I could not agree more. The hardest decision to make is to not fly when others are. The situation you describe of several helicopters departing from one location puts immense pressure on a nervous pilot who would rather not fly to say yes and follow them. (Remember fear is the feeling in your stomach you get when your brain says no and your mouth says yes). We must help to teach pilots to have the knowledge and strength of character to make such decisions.
It is for that reason that I started this thread to encourage the more experienced pilots to air their views in front of the less experienced so that they can see it is more than fine to say no to a flight and stay on the ground no matter what others are doing. It is in fact exactly what you should be doing and there is no shame in it.