High Wing Drifter,
The reference is the Perflight Action by the commander Article. (Can't remember the number). Basically one must ensure before departure that the flight can be completed as planned. The important thing is that this is required to be decided prior to flight.
That is why I say much more work may need to be done on the area of pre-flight weather understanding rather than having the idea that one can depart anyway and use the IMC option if the weather isn't VMC.
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mm_flynn,
Don't be so shocked. There have been airliners with two experienced pilots which crashed because of the pitot and/or static system failing.
Drop them into full IMC with freezing conditions
As a matter of interest, what do you regard as freezing conditions?
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IO540,
That doesn't mean they were current
You are spot on there.
However rather than asking them if they were current (which often gets the legal response) we asked if they would happily depart on a flight the next day which was IFR and used the willingness to fly IFR as a measure of what they considdered "current" to mean.
This result bears no resemblence to anything that a pilot who is current on the type would do
Please check out the airliner accident reports regarding blocked static and/or blocked pitot and/or failed primary attitude instruments........even the pros can get it wrong.
Any pilot who isn't an aircraft owner (or part-owner) is VERY unlikely to have any instrument currency
Agree totally and that is why the common mindset for the average pilot pounding round the FIR must be to fly what is planned and if one is really stuck, declare an emergency and take the least risk option - even if that means spending lots of money.
Regards,
DFC