Guys,
I think both sides or this are probably over reacting a little.
The truth is probably that Sunfish over stepped the mark a little, but phrased his post badly enough that it looks like he over steped it a lot.
It probably turns out to be a case that the symptoms of his cold had disappeared, but he'd still one or two pills left to take.
He probably had a single glass of wine with his dinner the night before, and went flying the following afternoon.
Now ok, he shouldn't have been taking alcohol while on antibiotics. However a glass of wine 18 hours before is not likely to casue much of an issue.
If he hadn't experienced any of the symptoms of his cold for a few days then neither is the cold likely to cause much of an issue.
Antibotics? I don't know much about them, but I'm sure Sunfish would have asked his doctor about any possible side effects.
Nothing here to really call for a lynching.
And of course if he had miscalculated on any of these points, he did still have the actual commander, the instructor, on board to save the day.
However Sunfish probably was trying to over analyise the ill effects he felt on the flight, and badly phrased his post. He was thinking about dehydration that only existed in theory from drinking a glass of wine the previous day, but that wasn't actually there in practice.
He asked if his cold could have been the problem, when he probably ment was it possible that he was still effected by it, even though he no longer had any symptoms?
On the other hand, if I'm wrong and he had a bottle of wine the night before, while on medication, and with a full blown cold, and went flying the next morning, then he deserves what he's getting.
Sunfish,
I've always found it helpful to think of the AAIB accident report that would result from an accident on a flight that I was about to undertake, and read it to myself. If it would sound like the pilot was just unlucky then I'm ok to fly. But sometimes I realise I'd think the pilot was a complete fool for going flying that day, and then I know to stay at home.
Based on the facts that you've posted in your first post, and the way that you'd phrased them, the accident report would probably start something like....
"The handling pilot, who was taking medication for a bad cold that he was suffering from, had consumed a significant amount of wine the previous evening. On the morning of the flight, which was to be an aerobatics session, he reported suffering from dehydration.........."
If when you imagine the AAIB report, you think it might start like that, then it's clearly not a day to go flying.
I'm questioning your judgement; like I said above, I think you probably just phrased your post in such a way that it makes people think the worst. I just hope that you might take that thought on board, and use it as a good bench mark to consider if it's a good day to go flying.
dp